Content area
Full Text
Jerry Rosberg, who played football at Fairmont High School and then at North Dakota State under Jim Wacker, recommended Tim Rose as the Gophers defensive coordinator.
Rose, the defensive coordinator at the University of Cincinnati and a former head coach at Miami (Ohio), accepted the defensive coordinator job at Minnesota late Thursday.
And now Rosberg, the defensive backs coach at Cincinnati, will interview for a Gophers assistant coaching position unless he becomes the Cincinnati defensive coordinator.
Buddy Wyatt, the current Gophers defensive line coach, probably will be the only member of last season's Gophers defensive staff to remain on board.
Rose said he has studied films of Gophers games the past year, and didn't have any problem accepting a one-year contract under Wacker.
"Life is a risk," said Rose. "But I don't see this as any risk going to work for Jim Wacker, who has won national championships and has been a winner in the past. I didn't know Jim personally. But I have observed Jim from afar and listened to him talk at coaches conventions. I noticed his success at TCU.
"I may be a real lucky guy to be coming to this situation," Rose said. "I watched the offensive personnel on film and they are pretty good. I saw the defensive personnel and just hope that the age and experience they got the past two years will pay off in 1996."
Rose was a defensive coordinator for five years at Miami and the head coach there for seven after replacing Tom Reed, who now is at North Carolina.
"We had two bad years at the end {at Miami}," Rose said. "They had a change of administration, and it was an easy call for them to make. Certainly no coach thinks it is justified to be fired."
Rose was out of coaching for a couple of years and then became defensive coordinator at Memphis State, where Rose directed the third-best defense in the NCAA one year. He...