FOOTBALL

Former USC Assistant Johnny Nansen Named Defensive Coordinator At Arizona

I’m trying to think of the right word for this hire: Unimpressive? Laughable?

If Jedd the Fisch just wants someone for recruiting, OK. But Johnny Nansen has never been a defensive coordinator at the college level. He actually coached running backs at USC before he switched to linebackers.

He was the defensive line coach at UCLA last season.

The coaching profession is really something else.

44 thoughts on “Former USC Assistant Johnny Nansen Named Defensive Coordinator At Arizona”

    2. To paraphrase the Dread Pirate Robert in The Princess Bride, “Can’t picture Nansen as Defensive Coordinator? You’re just saying that because no one ever said, hinted or thought of it before.”

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  3. Basketball team starts the road to PAC 12 title tonight. Still seems to have missed Scott’s radar. How could that happen? Thanks Enfield! Anyone catch that latest Zag vs UCLA score. Hard to get them without Own’s her to tell us. Was it another close loss? #theytrackthose

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  6. It’s always predictable when coaches are going to fail, and this is a perfect example. Karl Dorrell will be fired after next season at Colorado, and Clay Helton will follow him the season after next… I guarantee! These athletic directors need to be held accountable for the stupid hires they make, it’s almost as if they grab names out of the air .

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    1. As a parent of a Pac-12 soccer player, I can tell you that there is a lot of incompetence in the college coaching ranks (in all of the sports). What I can’t understand is that they cover for each other and hire each other as assistants when they are actually not well (i.e Saban bringing in Sark). The coaches are lazy, they kowtow to some of the parents (i.e. the Village Idiot with JT), and really only answer to the AD. It’s why good, hardworking, and disciplined coaches like Saban, Dabo, Brian Kelly, etc are successful over the long term.

      BTW Bill, I changed my profile picture because you wanted to remove all references to the Village Idiot on this blog.

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  7. Jedd Fish does not know what he is going. Lots of rah rah stuff but unbelievable Arizona hired that guy in the 1st place.

    Now he hires Johnny Nansen as the defensive coordinator after last year hiring Pete Carroll’s son as the offensive coordinator. My goodness he could have hired Clancy Pedergast, or even Todd Orlando.

    Lots of the buddy system in coaching right now. Let’s hope it does not happen at USC with all these former Texas Tech coaches leading our team. It will be very interesting to see if Graham Harrell and Clay Meguire are retained by Mr. Lincoln.

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    1. I wonder if Lincoln —in the nicest possible way —could tell Graham he’ll spring for a one way ticket to North Korea?

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  9. I always thought that Johnny Nansen was a great coach and a great recruiter. But it is one thing to be a great position coach and a totally different thing to be a great co-ordinator. We’ll see what happens.

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  10. Michael:
    And……………Nansen will probably get lost somewhere inside the Grand Canyon trying to recruit some players for the U of A.

    TROJAN BASKETBALL TONIGHT——VS. UTAH to open the Pac 12.
    Objective -No. 1 for Mr. Bohn Mission acccomplished. We got our man.
    Objective- No. 2 for Mr. Bohn- extend Andy Enfield’s contract before the end of the season.
    Objective- No. 3 for Mr. Bohn- Send Graham Harrell a Christmas card, termination letter, and strong recommendation for the offensive coordinator job at Georgia Southern.

    For you since you are now the USC recruiting coordinator for Hawaii please find us some defensive linemen, and linebackers so USC can now become a physical defensive team under the leadership of Abe Lincoln Riley.

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  11. I think your take is wrong on this one. Since John Mackovic put this program back into the stone age 20 years ago, some decent coaches have come and gone. None have managed to build any roster depth. Even when Arizona gets a little momentum, they’re depleted by game 6 every year. This is a creative attempt by Jedd to get some inroads to the competitive SoCal market. If it gathers the Wildcats an extra five or six 3-star athletes, it was worth it.

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  13. JEDD FISH- WILL BE GONE AFTER NEXT SEASON. YOU DON’T HIRE NANSEN AND PETE’S SON AS YOUR COORDINATORS TO GAIN MOMENTUM IN S. CALIFORNIA RECRUITING. NEXT THING HE WILL DO IS TRY TO HIRE CLANCY PEDERGAST AS YOUR DIRECTOR OF RECRUITING, and HE HATES TO RECRUIT.

    Arizona should give up football, and stick with basketball, and baseball. Dick Tomey did a great job there a long time ago. it might be time to move the program to Nogales, Mexico or drop the program completely.

    The guy has no clue lots of bs……rah..rah stuff. NOW THAT HELTON IS GONE MR. FISH IS THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE PAC 12.

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  18. Michael: On your recruiting tour please find us another Ray Malauga at LB, and a Willard Scott/Rich Dimler nose tackle type player to plug the middle up. I think we will be fine at QB with the recent commit of the Duel Threat QB (Nations No 2. QB) from Lakewood thanks to the extra effort by Abe Lincoln Riley.
    I hear there are some good recruits in the City of Hana where Charles Lindberg use to reside. Please be careful driving to Hana for all night high school football games the road is a little dangerous after a few Mai Tai’s.

    USC Basketball——-is on the verge of something great this season. I can’t guarantee a Final 4, but a very exciting season. Hard to beat a team with a guy named Boogie on it.

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    1. I saw Ray Malauga (2018 version) at Whale Park in Kihie. Fight broke out and, being smart enough to stay out but wanting to see it stopped, I walked up to the baddest looking young guy in the park and whispered “somebody should stop this.” This guy immediately jumped in —kinda accidentally knocking both brawlers down— and said, “walk away brothers.” Then he just looked at me and smiled.
      My thought: If only I could “wish” this guy straight into the starting lineup as our Middle Linebacker.

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  20. You need to open tryouts for potential USC recruits at Whale’s Park.
    The requirements- 18-25 years old must be 6 ft. 2 or taller, weigh 225 up to 340 lbs, and run the forty in 4.8 or lower. HS Diploma required, with an Hawaiian Warrior mentality. Must pass a physical conducted by USC President Carol Folt.

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  21. Hello there, this is not Wolcott, he sleeps, this is the Ghost of Wolcott,
    who has sneaked out to this blog to put something very important on the record!

    The “Other” Blog, as if there is any other blog outside of Wolf’s Blog, started a “betting” contest with 20,000 points to see who would do best
    in picking winners out of the Pacific-12 games in 2021. The contest ends this weekend with the Oregon-Utah game, the latest chapter in their 2021 saga.

    But I was kicked off the “Other’s” blog right before the contest was to end. This is the only matter that I am still sore about.

    You see, I spent a lot of time with that hobby. Beating the point-spread of games, ‘Vegas style, is not easy pickin’s. In fact, the “Other’s” rabid blog posters, all 16 of us, lost all of the 20,000 betting points except for but a few bettors.

    Score was TMJ 47, 000 Wolcott 41,000, the 2 runaway leaders, prior to the sucla game.
    TMJ then bets 33,000 on sucla, to close me out, wins, and now the score is TMJ 77.000 Wolcott 41,000 (TMJ is probably now counting his prize money)
    However, Wolcott plays it safe, wanting to stay within striking distance of TMJ, and so bets only 1000 each week the past weeks
    So:
    TMJ 77,000
    Wolcott 41,000
    Wolcott bets 41,000 on Utah -5 (or whatever the betting line currently is)
    So if Wolcott wins, he is at 82,000
    TMJ at 77,000 MUST then win his bet or he loses.

    Good. This is now on the Record

    Better get back to Wolcott and re-enter him before he awakens.

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