Sad news is coming out of Kansas, as Carl Torbush, longtime defensive coordinator and later head coach at North Carolina is retiring from his job as Kansas defensive coordinator, ending a thirty-five year coaching career. Torbush has been diagnosed with low-grade prostate cancer; he is scheduled to have surgery soon and expects a full recovery.
Torbush was an early hire by Mack Brown when the latter arrived in Chapel Hill, after one season as the head coach at Louisiana Tech. He would remain the defensive coordinator and some time linebackers coach during Brown's entire tenure, and was the overwhelming favorite of the players to succeed him as head coach. In that position, he produced mixed results, taking the team to the Las Vegas Bowl in his first season, but going 3-8 in his second. In danger of being fired, he turned things around with a 6-5 third season, but it wasn't enough to save his job, as he was fired at season's end.
Torbush presided over some of the best defensive teams in Carolina's history, and the pros are littered with alumni who played under him, including first-rounders Julius Peppers, Ryan Sims, Ebenezer Ekuban, Vonnie Holliday, Greg Ellis, and Brian Simmons. Our thoughts are with him, and I'm sure he'll handle cancer with the same aplomb he handled opposing offenses.