Southern Miss fills offensive coordinator spot

It didn't take long for Southern Miss coach Todd Monken to find his new offensive coordinator and he didn't have to look far.

Monken has promoted receivers/special teams coach John Wozniak to offensive coordinator

Wozniak replaces Chip Lindsey, who was hired by Arizona State as offensive coordinator this week following a record-setting season with the Golden Eagles.

Southern Miss (9-4) is set to play Washington (6-6) at 1:20 p.m. on Dec. 26 in the Heart of Dallas Bowl at the Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas, Texas.

Wozniak has been on Monken's staff for all three years at USM and the two men had brief discussions in the past about the potential of him taking over as offensive coordinator.

With Lindsey in the running for head coach or offensive coordinator at other schools, Wozniak recently received a phone call from Monken while he was out on the road recruiting.

"He said, 'Tell me, why should I hire you as offensive coordinator?,'" Wozniak said. "I just tried to keep the car on the road because I was so excited. I rambled something incoherent and thankfully he cut me off before I could screw it up. He said, 'Good, I think we'll go in that direction if he takes that job.'

"I owe a lot to coach Monken. He's been better to me than I deserve. I'm excited. It's a great place to run an offense."

Wozniak will continue to handle receivers in preparations for the bowl game while offensive graduate assistant Cole Weeks handles quarterbacks.

Entering the spring, Wozniak will switch from receivers to quarterbacks.

Wozniak said he looks forward to working closely with junior quarterback Nick Mullens as he enters his senior campaign.

"We have a lot of good players," Wozniak said. "These guys are fun to be around. Nick is really smart when it comes to football IQ. I had a small part in recruiting Nick (from Spain Park High School in Hoover, Ala.). It all comes back full circle. He's a great kid."

Wozniak said he and Monken will look to build on the balanced offense this season that produced a 4,000-yard passer (Mullens) and two 1,000-yard rushers, sophomore Ito Smith and senior Jalen Richard. The only other squad to do that was the 2008 Oklahoma team.

"It's a byproduct of having good players," Wozniak said. "We stayed out there on the field and didn't have 3-and-outs. Anybody can touch the ball."

Wozniak served as tight ends/special teams coach in 2006 at Georgia Southern, offensive quality control coach at LSU in 2007, tight ends/special teams coach at Montana State in 2008, special teams coordinator at Memphis in 2009 and running backs coach at UAB in 2011.

Wozniak served as an offensive coordinator at Div. III Knox College (2000-03) and Div. II West Georgia in 2010. He also worked as a football analyst at Alabama in 2012.

Monken and Wozniak are both graduates of Knox College in Illinois and the two men were at LSU in 2005. Wozniak was an offensive graduate assistant at the time and Monken was the passing game coordinator.

Lindsey leaves USM after working two years as the team's offensive coordinator and he was already at work at Arizona State's practice on Friday.

"I'm extremely excited to get to Arizona State and get started," Lindsey said in a press release. "It's an honor to be on coach Graham's staff and to be a part of the Arizona State family.

"It has been a great two years at Southern Miss and I want to thank Todd Monken for the opportunity he gave me. I wish those guys the best of luck in their bowl game on Dec. 26 and in the future."

Wozniak takes over an offense that ranked ninth in the nation in average yardage at 519.8 yards a game and 12th overall in points at 40.6 a game.

USM's receivers had a big season with Wozniak serving as their position coach this year.

Senior Mike Thomas had 62 catches for 1,201 yards and 12 touchdowns. Another senior, Casey Martin, had 74 catches for 855 yards and seven scores. Junior D.J. Thompson had 52 catches for 743 yards and six scores.

Martin set the new single-season receptions record for USM and Thomas holds the single-season receiving yardage mark for the program.

Mullens completed 63.4 percent of his passes for 4,145 yards, 36 touchdowns and 12 interceptions this season.

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Southern Miss fills offensive coordinator spot ."