Frost has work left to do on staff hires, but OC candidates and an OL name emerge | Football

Whipple is a Northeast guy and has spent most of his career on the East Coast, including two stints as the head coach at UMass. This year, the Panthers won the ACC and he coached a Heisman Trophy contender in Kenny Pickett, leading one coach to speculate that, “there’s no way” the 64-year-old Whipple is leaving Pittsburgh. 

How the offensive coordinator position falls has an impact on where else Frost turns for offensive assistants. Harrell, Hill and Whipple coach quarterbacks, while others — like Virginia offensive coordinator Robert Anae, who was connected to the NU opening early in the process and last week saw coach Bronco Mendenhall abruptly resign — coach the offensive line.

If Nebraska does end up in the market for an offensive line coach, there are multiple known candidates. Frost interviewed Donovan Raiola, the Chicago Bears assistant offensive line coach who played college football at Wisconsin, late last week, a source confirmed to the Journal Star. Raiola has been with the Bears for the past four seasons and was a graduate assistant at Notre Dame from 2015-16.

Frost also met with Notre Dame offensive line coach Jeff Quinn in South Bend, Indiana, a source said.

According to reporting from South Bend, Quinn’s future on the staff under new Irish coach Marcus Freeman has not been formalized. Quinn has been in coaching for more than 35 years and has been ND’s offensive line coach for the past four. He’s been with the Irish since 2015 overall and before that spent five years as the head coach at Buffalo. He could be a candidate to rejoin Brian Kelly at LSU. Currently, LSU offensive line coach Brad Davis is the interim head coach in Baton Rouge.