Rumors have been swirling about the possible departure or reassignment of long-time Texas strength and conditioning coach Jeff Madden. The last member of Mack Brown's inner circle -- Cleve Bryant is on administrative leave and may not return pending the result of the investigation against him and Greg Davis resigned -- Madden has been with Brown since their days at North Carolina.
After Will Muschamp's departure, the rumors about Mad Dog being ousted as S&C coach died down a bit, as it seems that Muschamp wasn't a big fan of Madden. However, Recruitocosm has been reporting for a month or more that Madden will not be in his current position when Texas takes the field against Rice this fall. Now, Alan Trubow of Hookem is weighing in on the matter ($), confirming the reports by Recruitocosm. However, as of this writing, it does not appear that the major news outlets have reported the story (although Orangebloods will probably have something shortly) and there has been no official announcement by the school.
From certain corners of the internet, most specifically Barking Carnival, Madden has been under attack for some time. The lack of a nutritionist specialist with the school is particularly alarming and the fact that players like Cody Johnson and John Chiles are now notably slower than when they entered the program is alarming as well. Throw in the lack of development by the Texas offensive line -- players like Kyle Hix didn't look like they developed physically at all during their time at Texas and the case against Madden gets stronger.
As mentioned in the linked article above at Recruitocosm, Dick Tomey had to take over the strength and conditioning program in 2004 when he came into the program and, perhaps not coincidentally, the Texas defense lost its reputation for being a soft group at that time. The other problem, according to Recruitocosm, is that Madden provided little oversight in the weight room, leaving it upon the players to make sure that they did their workouts correctly. Considering that the strength and conditioning coach spends more time with the players throughout the year than any other coach on the staff, the lack of leadership and accountability at that position is absolutely inexcusable.
The expectation here is that Brown wants to at least keep around one member of his now decimated inner circle and Madden looks likely to be the choice and land in an administration position.
As for potential replacements, the top name out there is that of LSU S&C coach Tommy Moffitt, who is perhaps the Todd Wright of college football. A guy who has been named the top S&C coach in both high school and college football, Moffitt has been at LSU for the last 10 years and has coached four national championship teams. Unlike Mad Dog, Moffitt focuses on nutrition, flexibility, core strength, and balance, including both yoga and karate into his program. The speculation for some time has been that it would be difficult to get Moffitt to leave Baton Rouge, but his connections to Bo Davis, who coached with him for some time at LSU, may help the Longhorns convince Moffitt to leave his comfort zone there.
Another possibility is current Tennessee S&C coach Bennie Wylie, who fits the profile of recent hires by Mack Brown because he is a young up-and-comer in the business. Only 33 years old, Wylie is in his first year at Tennessee after spending seven years under Mike Leach at Texas Tech and also has experience in the NFL working with the Dallas Cowboys. And though he wouldn't be directly involved in recruiting, the fact that he is a Texas native who went to college in Texas (Sam Houston State), probably doesn't hurt as well.
Meet Bennie Wylie UT Sports TV.flv (via shizzle093)