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Breakfast Blitz: College Football News for Jan. 20, 2015- Early Signing, Gene Chizik to UNC, & Lane Kiffin to 49ers?

By Caleb Calhoun

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The Breakfast Blitz is a daily morning feature bringing you the latest up to date college football news. Sit down, eat your breakfast, grab your coffee, and get in front of your computer to check out the stories of the day.

An early signing period in recruited has been recommended by a committee led by MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, according to CBS Sports.

"If adopted, the sport’s new initial signing period would be in place this year for the 2016 recruiting class. The new early date would begin Dec. 16 and last 72 hours. It would be in place for two years as an “experiment,” before being reevaluated.“There’s an acknowledgement,” said Big Ten associate commissioner Chad Hawley, a member of the 12-person committee that made the recommendation, “the reality is this becomes the new main signing date. If that’s the case so be it, let’s see what happens.”"

Former Auburn Head Coach Gene Chizik has been hired as defensive coordinator at North Carolina, according to ESPN.

"“Gene Chizik believes in competing at the highest level both on and off the field and is another highly regarded leader for our program,” North Carolina coach Larry Fedora said in a statement.Chizik will have his work cut out for him in Chapel Hill, where defensive coordinator Vic Koenning was fired after a disastrous 2014 season that ranks as one of the worst defensive efforts in school history."

ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter has been told Lane Kiffin is the frontrunner to be the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, according to ESPN.

"Kiffin said last month that he wasn’t going to leave Alabama.“Yes. Definitely,” Kiffin said in December, when asked if he would return to the Crimson Tide. “I think that we’ve still got a lot of stuff we can do better. We’ll obviously be working with a new quarterback, and that will be exciting. We’ve done that before. To me, that’s always exciting, the unknown. You’ve got a new quarterback to see if we can do this again, to see if we can perform really well.”"

Alabama Crimson Tide players Altee Tenpenny and Malcolm Faciane are no longer on the football team, according to BamaOnLine.

"Tenpenny was a highly decorated recruit coming out of North Little Rock (Ark.) High School in 2013 and selected Alabama over instate rival Arkansas. He was rated No. 51 overall and the nation’s No. 5 running back according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite, but was never able to earn meaningful snaps with the logjam at running back during his time in Tuscaloosa.Faciane, from Picayune, Miss., was the nation’s No. 6 rated tight end the class of 2011 and was also a reserve during his career at Alabama."

LSU Tigers lose two players for the Spring Semester, including a star cornerback, due to academic issues, according to The Advocate. 

"The LSU careers of fullback Melvin Jones and cornerback Rashard Robinson likely are over.Jones and Robinson are not enrolled for the spring semester and are no longer part of the team, the school confirmed Sunday. Both players are seen as academic casualties and are not expected to rejoin the team."

Former Ohio State Buckeyes Defensive End Noah Spence is transferring to Eastern Kentucky, his father told ESPN.com Monday night. 

"Spence played for Ohio State in 2012 and 2013 before being suspended and eventually declared ineligible after failing two drug tests. He was initially suspended for the 2014 Orange Bowl and the first two games of the 2014 season after testing positive for ecstasy last December.A second positive test late this summer caused the Big Ten to indefinitely suspend Spence and eventually deny his appeal for reinstatement in November."

Next: Top 10 Colleges by Players in the Super Bowl

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