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Arkansas grabs NU's offensive coordinator

Northwestern offensive coordinator Garrick McGee has resigned to take a position on Bobby Petrino's staff at Arkansas, team sources confirmed Monday.

Indications are McGee will be named Arkansas' quarterbacks coach this week. Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald must now fill vacancies at both coordinator positions after firing defensive coordinator Greg Colby on Dec. 3.

McGee, 34, spent the last two seasons as NU's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach after coaching wide receivers in 2004 and 2005. This season, the Wildcats led the Big Ten in total offense (427.7 ypg) and ranked 11th nationally in pass offense (307.9 ypg), but they ranked next to last in the league in scoring offense (25.8 ppg).

Northwestern team spokesman Mike Wolf could not confirm McGee's departure. Arkansas team spokesman Josh Maxson said any coaching additions would not be announced until after today's Cotton Bowl matchup against Missouri.

McGee served as an offensive quality control coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars when Petrino was the offensive coordinator in 2001.

McGee becomes the third offensive coordinator to leave NU since the school installed the spread offense in 2000. He also would be the second man to go from coordinator to position coach, as Kevin Wilson left to become Oklahoma's offensive line coach in 2002.

Last summer, Wilson, now the Sooners' offensive coordinator, urged NU to increase the salaries of its assistant coaches to honor the late Northwestern coach Randy Walker, who negotiated higher salaries for his aides months before his sudden death.

"It's probably one of the lowest-paid staffs in one of the most expensive regions," Wilson told the Daily Herald. "Give them a chance to pay-structure those guys where there's not as much turnover. That would be a great way, in memory of Randy, to give that program a chance to truly be what he thought it could be."

Fitzgerald faces the most important decisions of his brief head-coaching career in hiring two coordinators. If he looks internally, wide receivers coach Kevin Johns could be a candidate for offensive coordinator, and linebackers coach Randy Bates a candidate for defensive coordinator.

External candidates for defensive coordinator could include Arizona linebackers coach Tim Kish. A source close to the program said that Penn State linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden, the defensive coordinator at NU when Fitzgerald played, is not a candidate to return in that position.

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