Indiana Quarterbacks Coach Shawn Watson Leaves to Become O-Coordinator at Pittsburgh

Shawn Watson leaves the Hoosier program just one day after National Signing Day. Image: BurntOrangeNation.com

Written By David Sugarman (@David_Sugarman2)

Just one day after National Signing Day, the turnover for Indiana’s football program is still in full swing. Today it was announced that Shawn Watson, Indiana’s now former quarterback coach, will be Pittsburgh’s new offensive coordinator. The Panthers had a solid 2016 season, going 8-5 highlighted by a signature win at Clemson, who went on to with the National Championship. Pittsburgh played their way into the Pinstripe Bowl where they lost to Northwestern 31-24. 

Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi and Watson have a history going back to their days under the late Randy Walker. Watson was something of a mentor for Narduzzi who said in Pitt's official release, “He sat me down as a young coach and taught me how to work with wide receivers in my first full-time job at Miami (Ohio) in the early 1990’s. Ever since that time, we have always talked about being able to reunite on the same staff again.” Today, that dream came to fruition for Narduzzi.

With Watson’s departure this leaves another vacancy on IU’s staff. After letting go of offensive coordinator Kevin Johns the Hoosiers picked up Mike DeBord from Tennessee, but have still yet to fill the offensive line coach position since Greg Frey left for Michigan (that decision should come in the next week). When asked about the turnover at IU, head coach Tom Allen was frank saying, “It’s part of the profession. They get opportunities, guys that are position coaches want to be coordinators, guys that are coordinators may have a chance to be a head coach.”     

Allen isn’t wrong. This is often the natural order of things and maybe even more so for a program undergoing a tremendous amount of change. Now Allen, someone who has made a name for himself on the defensive side of the ball, will have to go out and make two key hires along the offensive front. Losing projected first round draft Dan Feeney from the offensive line and with question marks surrounding Richard Lagow’s status as the starting quarterback, it will be interesting to see how quickly Allen rounds out the rest of the staff.