KEVIN KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat Coach Rob Ianello mans the sidelines at a road game last season. Ianello and Camp are among five assistants to leave the UA football program this off season.

Two more assistants depart Mackovic's football staff; five gone in less than a month

The Wildcat football team lost its fifth coach in the span of a month yesterday when defensive end coach Charlie Camp told head coach John Mackovic that he was leaving to take a job as a linebacker coach at Oregon State.

"When he came here we asked him to coach a spot (defensive ends) that wasn't necessarily his favorite," said Mackovic. "Part of that was that we ran the double-eagle flex, with which he was familiar as a player. Now that we're clearly moving away from the scheme, it's a good chance for him to return to linebackers."

This is just further evidence that the Wildcats will abandon the signature double-eagle flex defense that UA has used since 1992.

Charlie Camp

Camp was in his first season as a coach at Arizona, returning after playing inside linebacker for the Wildcats in the mid '90s.

"It's a great opportunity for me," Camp said. "I've been a Wildcat as a player and a coach, and that part of leaving is difficult. But professionally, this makes sense."

This is the second departure in the last four days for the football program.

Receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Rob Ianello said on Friday he would be leaving to coach tight end at Wisconsin. Ianello will return to Wisconsin where he coached before he came to the UA. He was the Badgers' on-campus recruiting coordinator in 1990-91 and the recruiting coordinator in 1992-93.

Last year was Ianello's ninth season with the Arizona program. He held the second longest tenure of last season's coaches. Ianello had a big impact on the Wildcats' recruiting efforts in recent years, getting two top 25 recruiting classes in the nation.

This all comes with less than a week until spring football is set to begin. Mackovic said he would decide later on in the week whether or not to push back spring practice in order to find replacements.

One of the big replacements will be a defensive coordinator. Former coach Larry MacDuff left the Wildcats for a special team job in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers last week, and Mackovic said the team was close to hiring a new coach.

Spring practice was scheduled to begin this Saturday for the Wildcats, but all speculations point to it being delayed. When the practice does resume, it will feature two new coaches on the offensive side of the ball. Offensive coordinator Mike Deal will take over for offensive coordinator Rick Dykes and new quarterback coach Jeff Hecklinski will take over for a coaching vacancy left by special teams and linebackers coach Scott Pelluer, whose job was eliminated to add an offensive coach.