A SPECIAL REPORT: COACHES CRADLE

Pigskin Promotions

The firing and hiring of major college football coaches has become all but a winter rite of passage. The latest wave of changes included promotions for Pat Hill, Tom Holmoe, Dave Baldwin and Jim Fenwick--all coaches with roots in the San Fernando Valley.

Hill Climbs

Hill, 44, was hired to take over at Fresno State on Dec. 3. The former Crespi High player was offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator at Fresno from 1984 to 1989 and was most recently an assistant with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.

He Knows the Way

Baldwin, 42, who played at Granada Hills High, came back to his college alma mater as coach and in two years turned Cal State Northridge into a Big Sky Conference contender. He then left for a $125,000-per-year job at San Jose State, almost doubling what he made with the Matadors.

Building at CSUN

Fenwick, 44, the new Northridge coach, is best known as the architect of nationally prominent junior college programs at Pierce and Valley. Now he has new designs. “I want to bust out of the seams and [help] build a new stadium with a lot of people tailgating and barbecuing.”