Oklahoma State football notebook: New assistant Tim Duffie to coach safeties

And there has been, with Cowboy coach Mike Gundy announcing Wednesday that Duffie will coach safeties and Van Malone will switch to coaching cornerbacks.

Malone has plenty of experience with that position, coaching cornerbacks at Western Michigan in 2004 and at Texas A&M from 2006-07. He also coached the entire secondary at North Texas (2005) and Tulsa (2010-11).

New OSU defensive coordinator Glenn Spencer said Duffie's name had been considered in previous assistant coaching searches and was immediately brought up again when former cornerbacks coach Jason Jones left for the same position at Mississippi last week. Duffie's previous coaching stops include Wake Forest, Colorado State and UTEP.

“Schematically, he was really, really good,” Spencer said. “When I interviewed him and got him on the board, he knew all the issues and he knew the answers, so that was comforting.

“But more than that, just his recruiting expertise in Texas … he's had that area as long as he's been coaching, so that was a big factor also.”