DURHAM, N.H. — New Hampshire football coach Sean McDonnell is taking an indefinite leave for health reasons.
The school did not elaborate on the condition of the 62-year-old coach. Athletic Director Marty Scarano said Monday night associate head coach Rick Santos, a former quarterback at the school, is now the interim head coach.
McDonnell has been New Hampshire’s coach since 1999 and on staff since 1991. He made no mention of the change during a weekly media call Monday. He has 98 career wins in the Colonial Athletic Association – tops among active league coaches and No. 3 overall.
Santos was a four-year starter at UNH from 2004 to 2007. He coached the team’s wide receivers from 2013 to 2015.
The Wildcats open at Holy Cross on Sept. 7.
VANDERBILT: Derek Mason has heard the question about this starting quarterback for a month, and the Vanderbilt coach still isn’t talking – at least not publicly.
Everyone will apparently have to wait for the Commodores’ first offensive series against No. 3 Georgia on Saturday night to find out who he picked as his starter.
Looking at Vanderbilt’s depth chart provides no hint if it’s Deuce Wallace or graduate transfer Riley Neal, though Wallace is listed first. And Mason said anything is possible when asked if Vanderbilt might play both Wallace and Neal.
TCU: Graduate transfer Alex Delton will be the starting quarterback for the season opener, and true freshman Max Duggan will also play in the first quarter against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday.
Coach Gary Patterson said the competition was good and that “a lot of guys keep pushing.”
Patterson also said senior running back Sewo Olonilua won’t play in the first half Saturday. Olonilua, who set a school bowl record with 194 yards rushing in the Cheez-It Bowl, was arrested in May on possible drug charges in Walker County, Texas.
MISSOURI-ARKANSAS: Missouri will play Arkansas at Arrowhead Stadium next season as part of a two-year deal that will bring the Tigers back to Kansas City for the first time since facing BYU in 2015.
The Tigers and Razorbacks are scheduled to play Nov. 28, though Missouri Athletic Director Jim Sterk said the game could be moved a day earlier for TV purposes. The SEC rivals are scheduled to play in Little Rock, Arkansas, this season in their first off-campus, regular-season game since 1963.
Missouri and Arkansas first played in 1906, but they only faced each other two more times before playing in the 2003 Independence Bowl. They also met in the 2008 Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
The Tigers will play the second game at the home of the Kansas City Chiefs before 2025.
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