Cecchini Joins Higgins at Citadel

[ngineer]

Former Lehigh and Harvard Offensive Coordinator Dave Cecchini, who was believed to be a finalist for the Lehigh HC position in January, as left Harvard to become OC at The Citadel under his former Lehigh boss, Kevin Higgins.
The Citadel is really acquiring a Lehigh/PL flavor as Higgins also hired former Lehigh defensive back coach, Isaac Collins to his staff as the DC a couple months ago. In addition, former Lafayette Leopard named Partridge has been added to the staff--I think as a line coach. Saw this in a small 'blurb' in today's Morning Call.
The Bulldogs are definitely going to employing a wide-open offense with Higgins and 'Chick' teamed up again, assuming they get the players to make it happen. It's expected to be announced later at the spring game that the school colors are going to accented with brown and white trim.
(just kidding;) )

[colgate13]

Wow - both Chick and Collins had HC potential at LU. The Citadel just might be on the upswing in the near term!

[Marcus Garvey]

At the Citadel under Higgins, think "Run 'n Gun" a la Houston in the late 80's or BYU under LaVel Edwards. Higgins best bet to win at the Citadel is to aggressively recruit skill players for a wide-open passing game. He'll always have a tough time recruiting the players to make a "complete" football team (i.e., balanced offense and suffocating defense).

They'll still have trouble playing the likes of Ga Southern, App. St., and Ferrum, but with an Air-Coryell offense, the rest of the schedule will be very winnable.

[fuEMO]

The Citadel has went down the run and gun path before… I will be curious to hear what Dog fans think about this direction.

IMO the running teams of Taffe were the perfect fit for Citadel.

About Higgins coaching moves… Roberto Pinilla, Citadel's highly-acclaimed defensive line coach is currently a volunteer coach during spring practice at Furman. So I assume he will become the Paladins new defensive line coach at the end of the school year. This is a great move, probably the weakest link in recent years has been the dline.

[dungeonjoe]

it will be interesting to see if they can recruit, given the talented coaching staff but the military school environment

[ngineer]

Certainly seems like a move by Chick to 'upgrade' the resume. He's only 33-34 and if he and Higgins can start posting some 'W's' down there, he'll certainly be in a good position for a move to I-A or an HC job in I-AA. Same with Collins. It's obvious Higgins had such a good staff at Lehigh in the late 1990's since he's returning to that structure as much as he can. The other two key components were Lembo (now at Elon) and Gilmore (now at Holy Cross) and both HC's.