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by Chris Murray
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While Nevada football coach Jeff Choate said he wasn't surprised by 13 Wolf Pack players entering the transfer portal in recent days, another development within his program this week did sting.
That was offensive coordinator Matt Lubick accepting a job at Kansas on Tuesday where he will be the Jayhawks' co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach.
Choate and Lubick have known each other since the early 1990s when both were part of the Montana Western football team, first as teammates and then with Choate as an assistant coach for the team after a career-ending injury.
Lubick coached Nevada this season while in remission from acute myeloid leukemia as the Wolf Pack made several changes to pave the way for Lubick to join the program. Lubick is in remission from his battle with cancer but was still required to take daily chemotherapy pills during the season, with Choate calling his story the best in college football this season.
"That hurt me because that's a personal relationship," Choate said of losing Lubick. "Obviously, I care for Matt and his well-being, and he clearly feels like this is a better situation for him. I'm hopeful he gets a clean bill of health and he can move forward. We made a lot of sacrifices. We went through a spring without an offensive coordinator. We modified a lot of how we operated based on what we needed to do for Matt, and a lot of that was done because of our relationship."
As a result, Choate said losing Lubick from the staff after one season "didn't feel very good." But Choate isn't in a rush to name a replacement for Lubick. He said the Wolf Pack does not anticipate more staff losses but those can be unpredictable, so he'd like to see everything settle before naming an offensive coordinator.
With potential in-house candidates — running backs coach Mike Lynch and offensive line coach Brian Armstrong have both been coordinators, and quarterbacks coach David Gilbertson took on a big role with the offense this season — Choate said Nevada has more pressing needs, including adding players from the portal.
"I'm taking my time on that, partially because we are so consumed right now with recruiting for the next 10 days," Choate said. "It's pretty much all hands on deck and we've got to go. I'm definitely putting feelers out. As I mentioned in my press conference on signing day, there's going to be some juggling within the staff. There's also the potential for there to be more movement. I'm aware of that. I don't want to jump and dive into something right away and just have to fix it again in January.
"I think it's better for us to operate as we are right now and get through this recruiting period. Let the smoke clear a little bit and give some people some time to decompress and reflect during the holidays and then come back and say, 'OK, I've talked to some people, I've done my due diligence. I feel like this is the direction for us to move forward.'"
