Joe Ganz had just capped his fourth season on the Northern Iowa staff and was in the mix to spend his fifth campaign with the Panthers as perhaps the team's offensive coordinator.
Instead, the former star quarterback at the University of Nebraska is making the leap to FBS play.
Sources tell FootballScoop that Ganz is joining the MTSU staff of new Blue Raiders coach Derek Mason as the program's tight ends coach.
Ganz, who launched his coaching career at his alma mater as a graduate assistant under Bo Pelini, his former Cornhuskers coach, has seven years' experience as a full-time, on-field assistant coach at the FCS level that he's bringing with him to Murfreesboro.
A former head coach at Vanderbilt and noted defensive coordinator, Mason was hired last month at MTSU to replace Rick Stockstill.