247's Ross Uglem, Publisher of Bison Report (NDSU) and Packer Report, and contributor to GoPowercat (K-State) stops by to offer some of his popular film analysis on Minnesota's hiring of former Utah State offensive coordinator Mike Sanford. Uglem has been scouting for pre-draft publications since 2013 and breaking down NCAA and NFL film since 2014.

Minnesota announced the hiring of Mike Sanford Jr. on Friday, replacing the departed Kirk Ciarrocca, who headed home to Pennslyvania and specifically home to Penn State. Sanford had all the makings of a handsome young head football coach in your McVay-Shanahan-LaFleur-even Fleckian way. An offensive guy on big-time staffs like David Shaw's Stanford, Bryan Harsin's Boise State, and Brian Kelly's Notre Dame.

This all led to an opportunity as Western Kentucky's head man, which went... poorly. Sanford was fired after two seasons (he replaced Jeff Brohm at WKU). This led to a minor fall back down the coaching ranks to the offensive coordinator spot at Utah State. Make no mistake, Sanford is being hired for his entire resume, not what happened at Utah State. Quarterback Jordan Love and the Aggies dropped from a shade under 48 points per game in 2018 under David Yost (Yost and his glorious hair left for Texas Tech) to a shade over 29 points per game under Sanf0rd.

It's important to understand that Matt Simon, who dialed up a hell of a game in Minnesota's upset win over Auburn (494 yards!) has been elevated to co-offensive coordinator, so I doubt Minnesota is going to fully install a new system, but rather have Sanford tinker with the system that's already in place. It doesn't hurt that Sanford has a reputation as a top-notch recruiter.

So here's what we're going to do today:

- Look at what worked for Minnesota, and what didn't

- Try to find some key concepts from Simon's coaching background that can be expected to arrive in Dinkytown

- Make our best guess at what Tanner Morgan and Rashod Bateman's offense is going to look like