AP source: Eastern Michigan hires Ron English

Updated: December 21, 2008, 3:32 PM ET
Associated Press

DETROIT -- Eastern Michigan has hired Ron English, making him the fifth black head football coach in major college football, a person familiar with the contract agreement told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the school hasn't announced its decision.

Eastern Michigan scheduled a news conference for Monday.

The other black coaches among the 119 teams in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision are Buffalo's Turner Gill, Miami's Randy Shannon, Houston's Kevin Sumlin and New Mexico's Mike Locksley.

The 40-year-old English was Louisville's defensive coordinator in 2008 after serving on Lloyd Carr's staff at Michigan for five seasons.

English turned the Cardinals' inexperienced defense around before an injury-depleted unit was overmatched in a lopsided loss to end the season at Rutgers.

After helping Michigan beat Florida 41-35 in the 2008 Capital One Bowl, English chose to accept an offer from Louisville after being aggressively pursued by schools such as UCLA.

English was on Carr's staff for five seasons, the last two as defensive coordinator. He began at Michigan as the secondary coach after being an assistant at Arizona State, San Diego State and Northern Arizona.

He earned four letters at California, starting at safety for the Bears as a senior and ending his playing career in the 1990 Copper Bowl.

English replaces Jeff Genyk, who was fired last month and went 16-42 in five seasons.


Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

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