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Bruce Feldman of the Athletic is reporting that the cornerbacks coach vacancy has been filled by former Ducks analyst Rod Chance, who coached at Minnesota last season as their cornerbacks coach.
SOURCES: #Minnesota cornerbacks coach Rod Chance will have the same position at #Oregon. A fast riser, he got looks at Group of 5 DC jobs this cycle. It’s a return to Eugene where he was a defensive analyst in 2018.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) February 15, 2020
The Golden Gophers page for Chance brings up a 404 error page so they have moved swiftly.
During his lone season at Minnesota, he coached likely Day 2 draft pick Antoine Winfield, Jr and had to coach his corners to practice against the dynamic receiver duo of Tyler Johnson and Rashod Bateman every day.
Prior to his first arrival in Eugene, he was the defensive coordinator at Southern Utah University. SUU produced two draft picks in the secondary from that era, Miles Killebrew and LeShaun Sims. Both are still in the NFL as contributors to the Detroit Lions and Tennessee Titans, respectively.
Before his SUU job, he was an defensive quality control coach for Vanderbilt. The Commodores had several defensive players go onto the pro level such as linebacker Stephen Weatherly (Vikings), linebacker Zach Cunningham (Texans), linebacker Oren Burks (Packers), and cornerback Andre Hal (formerly of the Texans). All four were / are big contributors for NFL teams with Hal having to unfortunately retire early from a promising career due to effects of Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Coach Chance coached at Alpharetta HS in Alpharetta, GA (a suburb of Atlanta) so he has ties to that talent laden state.
As to the potential effect that Chance could have on the cornerbacks group and the defense in general, hythloday comes through with some numbers.
Minnesota's pass defense improvement from 2018 to 2019 under CB coach Rod Chance: pic.twitter.com/pgCtabOo9k
— hythloday almond (@hythloday1) February 15, 2020
Chance gets a, ahem, chance to coach a veteran cornerback room that features likely draft picks Thomas Graham, Jr and Deommodore Lenior to go along with youngsters such as Mykael Wright, Luke Hill, Trikweze Bridges, Verone Mckinley III, and other talented ones.
He will undoubtedly get an opportunity to cross train some safeties who are capable as nickel backs as well such as Jevon Holland (easily the best safety in college right now).
So ATQ, let’s get your chance puns ready for the spring!
You can follow Coach Chance on Twitter here: @Coach_Chance
Welcome back, Coach!
Note: I expected the vacancy to get filled up at some point next week instead of this afternoon, hence the hot board post. I sincerely apologize for this error in judgement.