Report: Hue Jackson ‘has emerged as a strong candidate’ for ASU OC job

With the Arizona State Sun Devils deciding against keeping offensive coordinator Rob Likens, as well as wide receivers coach Charlie Fisher and tight ends coach Donnie Yantis, there’s a few open vacancies on head coach Herm Edwards’ staff.

According to FS1’s Bruce Feldman, two names have popped up on the radar as the team conducts its coaching searches.

Looking to fill the Sun Devils’ OC position, former Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson “has emerged as a strong candidate” for the job, per Feldman.

It would be a homecoming of sorts for Jackson as he spent four seasons (1992-95) at ASU, working with the running backs for three years before moving to the quarterbacks. Jackson also spent time primarily as a running backs coach at Pacific (1987-89), Cal State Fullerton (1990-91) before taking over offensive coordinator duties at California (1996) and USC (1997-2000).

In the NFL, Jackson’s been a part of six franchises, starting as a running backs coach with the Washington Redskins in 2001 before being promoted to OC. From there, he went on to coach receivers in Cincinnati (2004) before taking over as OC for the Falcons in 2007. He was also the quarterbacks coach for the Ravens, and in 2010 returned to offensive coordinator duties for the Oakland Raiders. Jackson would be named head coach of the Raiders before being fired in 2012. He would eventually head back to the Bengals two more times, once as an OC and again as the assistant to former head coach and current special advisor ASU Marvin Lewis (2019), earning a head coaching role with the Cleveland Browns (2016-18) in between the two stints.

Jackson isn’t the only tied to reports surrounding ASU coaching, as Oregon offensive analyst Prentice Gill has also emerged as a strong candidate to join the ASU staff, according to Feldman. Feldman, however, doesn’t specify what position Gill could be in line for.

Before joining the Ducks, Gill spent three seasons as a graduate assistant at USC working with wide receivers. Gill began his coaching career in 2012 as a receivers coach at Los Angeles Harbor College before heading to Long Beach City College in the same role. He joined USC in 2014 as a staff assistant, and was a graduate assistant at San Jose State in 2015 where he worked with defensive backs.

Arizona State finished 94th nationally in scoring offense this year, averaging 25.2 points per game.

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