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Bohn: University of Cincinnati has list of 12 possible replacements for Tuberville

Bohn: University of Cincinnati has list of 12 possible replacements for Tuberville
Posted at 8:34 PM, Dec 05, 2016
and last updated 2016-12-06 10:34:12-05

CINCINNATI -- The University of Cincinnati has a list of 12 candidates they're considering for the head football coach job after the departure of Tommy Tuberville, according to Athletic Director Mike Bohn.

Bohn is leading the search for a new coach, and he told WCPO that he's got a network of coaches and others helping to vet candidates. This will be his first major hire as UC athletic director.

So who's on the list?

Sources familiar with the search said P.J. Fleck, the head coach at Western Michigan, remains near the top of the list of UC targets.

Fleck has righted a wrong-heading program at Western Michigan and has his team in a New Year's Six bowl game, the Cotton Bowl.

But Fleck is the hot candidate, and UC is in competition with a couple of other big-time schools, including Oregon.

Fleck could also choose to stay put. In the middle of an unbeaten season and with a lot of his team coming back in 2017, he may be able to stay at Western Michigan and get a better deal, and check out the landscape after that, according to Chris Vannini of coachingsearch.com.

MORE:List to replace Tommy Tuberville likely starts with Kerry Coombs

UC has a number of fallback options. They could turn to Troy State head coach Neal Brown, a Kentuckian who has worked at the University of Kentucky as an assistant.

Or, they could go the coordinator route. Purdue hired Western Kentucky's Jeff Brohm today, so scratch him off the wish list. But reportedly, their fallback plan was to hire Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead.

Moorhead has been in Happy Valley only a year, but before that turned a 1-10 Fordham team into a team that went 37-3 the following five years.