The Eagles reshuffled the offensive side of their coaching staff by promoting Press Taylor and bringing in Rich Scangarello as an assistant. They won’t roll with a traditional offensive coordinator this season.

Notably absent from reports, rumors, and the official Eagles’ press release was the name of Duce Staley, the assistant head coach who also handles the running backs down at NovaCare. Was Duce passed up for a bigger gig? Was he ever in consideration?

Interestingly enough, there’s a story at The Athletic titled “Yes, there is reason to be concerned about South Carolina’s recent coaching exodus,” written by Josh Kendall, which includes a random Duce reference:

Former NC State co-offensive coordinator Des Kitchings and Tommie Robinson, an assistant head coach, recruiting coordinator and running backs coach at LSU, have interviewed for the vacant running backs coach position, according to TheBigSpur.com. Kitchings was let go at NC State after the season and doesn’t currently have a job, and LSU already has a replacement ready to go if Robinson leaves, Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron said on Baton Rouge, La., radio this week. If the head coach is commenting publicly on a potential departure, it doesn’t exactly create the sense that that coach is in high demand in his current position. (Of note: Philadelphia Eagles assistant head coach and running backs coach Duce Staley, a former South Carolina tailback, inquired with Muschamp about the running backs coach position but was rebuffed, a source told The Athletic.)

Duce is a Columbia native and played at Carolina in the mid 90s.

If you scroll down to the comments section, one guy brings up the fact that Duce doesn’t have a college degree, which would seem to be a prerequisite to working on the football staff. Kendall responded to that query, and another question, by saying this:

Two thoughts:

  1. Some universities require coaches to have degrees, the same way you’d need a license to coach at various levels in other sports. That seems a bit whack to me when you consider the fact that Duce played almost 10 years in the NFL and has been on the Birds’ coaching staff since 2011. Surely you could make an exception there, as Kendall notes.
  2. You do wonder what’s going through Duce’s mind right now. Mike Groh got the OC job two years ago, then was fired. Press Taylor got a promotion and Scangarello was brought in. Does Duce feel like he’s been passed over? No clue, but it’s something to think about.

Good morning.