Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said he knows who he wants to hire to replace quarterbacks and B-backs coach Bryan Cook, who has been hired as offensive coordinator at Georgia Southern.
“It’s probably already gone in my mind,” Johnson said. “We just haven’t done it officially. Bryan’s going to coach through the bowl game, so there’s no rush, but I know who I’m going to hire.”
Johnson’s comments suggest an internal hire, which would point to assistant operations director Craig Candeto. A quarterback for Johnson at Navy, Candeto has experience coaching the position. Candeto, who flew fighter jets in the Navy before he was discharged for medical reasons, was a graduate assistant for Johnson at Tech in 2010 and then left to coach quarterbacks and B-backs at The Citadel. He went from there to a head coaching job at Division III Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, where he coached from 2013-15.
Candeto left Capital this past offseason after concluding that his heart was at the Division I level and out of a desire to return to the South. He is from Florida and his wife, Maribeth, is from Alabama. He came back to Tech at Johnson’s invitation.
Cook joined the Tech coaching staff in April 2013 and served as quarterbacks and B-backs coach for four seasons. He was instrumental in the development of quarterback Justin Thomas. Johnson was pleased for Cook to be going to Georgia Southern, where Johnson developed his spread-option offense and won four FCS national championships, two as offensive coordinator and two as head coach. Georgia Southern coach Tyson Summers dismissed co-offensive coordinators David Dean and Rance Gillespie after his first season on the job. The hire became official Friday.
“I think it’s a good opportunity for him,” Johnson said. “He thought about it a year ago, and they didn’t want to give him a two-year contract or whatever. The AD (Tom Kleinlein) didn’t want to do it and (Cook) didn’t go, and this year, they did, so hopefully he’ll go down there and do a good job for ’em.”
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