USD Football 2008

Jimmie Dougherty returns in 2008 for his fifth season coaching at the University of San Diego. For the third straight year he will coach the quarterbacks, but this season has been promoted from Passing Game Coordinator to Offensive Coordinator. The past two seasons, Dougherty has coached the quar– terbacks, the position that he played in college. He flourished in furthering the development of former USO quarterback Josh Johnson. Johnson, a 5th round draft pick by the Tampa Bay Bu– caneers, leaves USO as the program's all-time passing leader in every category. Last year he completed 43 touchdowns with just one interception and finished 3rd in the final Walter Payton Award voting for the top FCS player. For his career he completed 724 of 1,065 passes (.680) for 9,699 yards and 113 touchdowns.His career passing efficiency rating of 176.7 is a new all-time NCAA mark.

He came to USO in 2004 and coached an outstanding wide receiver corp.That receiving group included All-American and team MVP Michael Gasperson as a senior, and Adam Hannula who went on to rewrite the school record book for career num– bers the following season as a senior.Gasperson led the team with 54 catches for 894 yards with 7TD's that season.Gasperson was signed after the season as a free agent by the Philadelphia Eagles and also was allocated to NFL Europe to play for the Cologne Centurions. The following season Dougherty showed his versatility and coached the tight ends.This group was led by senior Matt Koller who went on to earn All Pioneer Football League Conference honors that year. Prior to USO, Dougherty was a graduate assistant at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois from 2002-2004. During his years there, he was the defensive backs coach. He earned his masters from Illinois State during that time in Sport Management. Dougherty played quarterback at the University of Missouri from 1997-2001. He was a three year letter winner from 99-01. He started as a sophomore, throwing for over 1,400 yards and 7 TD's. His career was cut short as a junior when he suffered a ligament tear in his throwing elbow. Dougherty was a former All State performer at Edwardsville High School in football and basketball. He played for his father,Tim Dougherty, at Edwardsville High School. His father is now the head football coach at New Lennox High School.

George Darlington is in hisfirstyearwiththe USO football program where he will be the program's Defensive Coordinator. With a rich history of coaching experience, he spent this past season as the outside linebackers coach at Southeast Missouri State University.He came to Cape Girardeau after serving as the defensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech in 2006. Darlington has also coached at Nebraska, Marshall, San Jose State, Dartmouth and Lebanon Valley. Darlington was a longtime Nebraska Cornhuskers assistant

coach and became the first assistant in Division I-A history to be part of more than 300 wins at one institution. From 1973-85,he coached defensive ends and outside linebackers for the "Blackshirt"defense. From 1986-2002, he was the defensive backfield coach. He helped Nebraska to three national titles in 1994, 1995 and 1997 as well as numerous conference championships. While at Nebraska, Darlington helped send 30 playerson to the NFL while coaching seven All-Americans, including Bob Martin (1975), George Andrews (1978), Derric Nelson (1980),Jimmy Williams (1981 ), Mike Brown (1999), Ralph Brown (1999) and Keyou Carver (2001 ). During his final seven seasons with Nebraska, his pass defense was ranked in the top 10 in the nation four times and in 17 seasons coaching the Cornhuskers secondary, his squad never ranked lower than 37th nationally. In three of the last four years at Nebraska, Darlington's defense was ranked second in the country twice and seventh once in pass defense efficiency, While at Nebraska, he was the position coach for Southeast head coach Tony Samuel, wide receivers coach Lorenzo Brinkley and defensive backs coach Kenny Wilhite. Defensive coordinator Tim McGuire and offensive line coach Brian Boerboom also played for the Cornhuskers during his tenure as an assistant coach. Following his time at Nebraska, Darlington moved on to Marshall from where he cocahed the secondary in 2005, safeties and special teams in 2004 and outside linebackers in 2003, in addition to serving as the team's recruiting coordinator. During his first season at Marshall, Darlington helped the team lead the Mid-Atlantic Conference in total defense, allowing only 329.8 yards per game. Along the way, Darlington has been recognized numerous times for coaching success, earning the 1998 All-American Foot– ball Foundation'sTop Assistant Award. In the summer of 2000, the state of West Virginia honored him with the inaugural Frank Loria Award for distinguishment in the coaching profession. Prior to joining Tom Osborne's staff in Lincoln, Darlington served as an assistant coach at San Jose State for four seasons.The 68-year-old started his collegiate career at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa., followed by a one-year stint at Dartmouth before moving on to San Jose State. Darlington was a collegiate two-sport star at Rutgers, earning three letters in football and two in lacrosse, where he was named third team All-American in 1961 . The Charleston, W.Va., native earned his bachelor's degree from Rutgers in History and Physical Education in 1961 and a master's degree in Education from Stanford in 1962. Darlington is married to Susan Doetterl of Bloomfield,N.J.,and the couple has three children, Lisa, David and Julie,and nine grandchildren.

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