Troy’s record-breaking success in Year 1 under Jon Sumrall didn’t go unnoticed in college football.
Turns out, not in pro football, either. Multiple sources tell FootballScoop that Troy is facing the prospect of losing offensive line coach Cole Popovich to the NFL’s Houston Texans.
Per sources with direct knowledge, Popovich has been offered the job and is expected to join DeMeco Ryans’s new Houston staff working with the offensive line; additionally, it’s a return to the NFL for Popovich. The deal has not been finalized at this time; but league sources expect it to happen in the next twenty four hours.
A former star player at Fresno State, where he earned Freshman All-America accolades, Popovich logged a half-dozen seasons in the NFL with the New England Patriots, where he helped the franchise win a pair of Super Bowl titles.
Coaching at all levels of the sports, Popovich actually has experience at all three levels – high school, college at Minot State, as well as Troy, and the extended time in the NFL – in his still-evolving coaching career.
Houston hired Ryans, a former star linebacker at the University of Alabama who transitioned into a coaching star after his playing career ended, in late January to replace the fired Lovie Smith.
Ryans is the Texans’s third different head coach in as many seasons.