College Football

Texas A&M Football: False Alarm for A&M OC Noel Mazzone

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:19 p.m. ET

Fansided, Matthew Bartlett/FanSided via Gig Em Gazette

For a few hours Thursday afternoon, Texas A&M football offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone was a target for the Auburn OC job.

It had been an uneventful news day for the Aggies. Then Travis Haney of 247 Sports broke what seemed to be a program shaking story early in the afternoon. While most of the Texas A&M staff was scattered across the south on recruiting visits, rumors began to circulate that Noel Mazzone might be days away from leaving the program for an SEC rival.

Sources tell @247Sports that Texas A&M OC Noel Mazzone in mix – and could be leader – in Auburn OC search.

— Travis Haney (@travhaney) January 19, 2017

Haney went on to elaborate. Mazzone had previous experience at Auburn, serving as the offensive coordinator under Tommy Tuberville with the Tigers from 1999-2001. To be fair, Mazzone would be a candidate for a lot of jobs if every previous employer wanted to hire him away.

The former New Mexico graduate assistant has coached in the NFL as well as in high school. All told, Mazzone has coached at 10 different collegiate programs including a pair of stops at Ole Miss. Since his time at Auburn, he has been the OC at Oregon State, NC State, Ole Miss, Arizona State, UCLA, and now Texas A&M.

Mazzone, along with several other coaches on the A&M staff, would face a larger buyout if they were to leave for an SEC school. Specifically for Mazzone, the number would be upwards of $1.2 Million dollars.

By five o’clock in the afternoon answers had already come from the A&M staff. Per Brent Zwerneman, sources within Texas A&M confirmed that it’s highly unlikely that Mazzone would leave A&M after just one season.

Pending any more unexpected surprises, the Aggie staff will need a new defensive backs coach before the 2017 season starts. It would seem that the Aggie OC will return for his second season in Aggieland. Mazzone will have his work cut out for him breaking in a new starting quarterback. Still, Kevin Sumlin‘s staff looks like it will stay more or less intact going forward.