John Cullen was hired as head women’s soccer coach at his alma mater, Charlotte, to succeed Jon Lipsitz, who assumed the head coaching post at Kentucky. For the past eight years, Cullen has guided the women’s program at Catawba and had recently accepted additional responsibilities as head men’s coach. During his tenure, the four-time South Atlantic Conference coach of the year guided the women’s team to a 113-43-26 record, two SAC championships, one league tournament title and four NCAA Division II regionals, including two regional finals.

Other transactions

Director of Athletics – William “Bill” Villa was named athletics director at Chaminade.

Men’s basketball – Alabama head coach Mark Gottfried resigned after 11 seasons. Under Gottfried’s leadership, the Crimson Tide compiled a record of 210-131, a Southeastern Conference regular-season title and five NCAA tournament berths. He formerly was head coach at Murray State, guiding that program to three Ohio Valley Conference championships and three NCAA tournament appearances. Alabama chose assistant coach Philip Pearson as interim head coach.  

Football assistants – Miami (Florida) named Mark Whipple as offensive coordinator to replace Patrick Nix. Whipple, who formerly served as quarterbacks coach for the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers (2004-06) and who coached Massachusetts to the 1998 Football Championship Subdivision national championship, most recently was an offensive assistant coach the NFL Philadelphia Eagles. Whipple’s other collegiate coaching stints include his alma mater, Brown, along with New Haven, St. Lawrence and Union (New York) … Purdue named Cornell Jackson as running backs coach and appointed Donn Landholm as the Boilermakers' defensive coordinator. Jackson, who has 11 years of experience coaching running backs, comes to Purdue from Kansas State, where he was the linebackers coach this past season. He also has been an assistant at Baylor, New Mexico, Washington and Arizona State. Landholm has been an assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky for the last 12 seasons, serving as linebackers coach from 1997 to 2004, defensive coordinator from 2005 to 2007 and linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator in 2008. Purdue also announced that linebackers coach Mark Hagen, defensive line coach Terrell Williams and defensive backs coach Lou Anarumo will remain with the staff … Chuck Bullough was elevated to defensive coordinator and Carnell Lake was chosen as cornerbacks coach at UCLA. Bullough has been in charge of the Bruins’ linebackers for three seasons and will retain those duties. Lake, a three-year starter at outside linebacker for UCLA from 1986 to 1988, played 12 seasons in the NFL before retiring in 2001 and going into private business.

Men’s golf – Joey Tadeo was hired as head coach at Chaminade.

Deaths

Mary Ceville (Sue) Wesselkamper, Chaminade’s eighth and longest-serving president died January 3 at the age of 66. Hired on July 14, 1995, she was the first female president of Chaminade, the first woman to head a Marianist-sponsored university, and the first woman to preside over a university in Hawaii … Bob Thompson, former Duke head swimming and diving coach, died January 25 after battling cancer. He was 66. Thompson served as the Blue Devils’ head coach for 27 years before retiring in 2005. After his retirement, he worked in the school’s department of health and physical education.