Checking the List Made Up by Bubb

NORTHRIDGE â€”  Cal State Northridge Athletic Director Paul Bubb said he has heard from or received applications from about 18 coaches interested in the school’s football coaching position.

Bubb, who was not directly involved in the last search in 1995, said he believes this to be a stronger pool of applicants because the program is established in the Big Sky Conference.

Bubb expects to meet with a selection committee, of which he will be chairman, this week and begin filtering through the applications sometime after Dec. 20.

He has said he hopes to name a coach in early January. Bubb would not release the names of any candidates, but The Times learned the names of 10 candidates who have applied or expressed interest to Bubb.

Listed alphabetically, with their college or professional coaching backgrounds, they are:

* Chris Allen, Wake Forest defensive coordinator the past three seasons. Allen, 55, was defensive coordinator at USC, Arizona and Ball State and he was an assistant coach at Central Michigan. He was offensive coordinator at Arizona.

* Foster Anderson, Northridge’s secondary coach the past two seasons. Anderson, 56, has been an assistant at USC, UCLA, Valley College, East Los Angeles College, Pasadena City College and Cal State Los Angeles. He was an assistant with the Rams in 1978. His was head coach at Cal State LA in 1973.

* Ray Dorr, a Kentucky assistant the past four seasons. Dorr, 54, was an assistant and offensive coordinator at USC. He was an assistant at Akron, Kent State and Washington and he was head coach at Southern Illinois while Bubb was an assistant athletic director there in the mid 1980s.

* Mark Banker, a USC graduate assistant this season. Banker, 40, spent 14 seasons as a Northridge assistant, 11 as defensive coordinator. He left after the 1994 season to become an assistant at Hawaii, where he spent one season. Prior to coming to Northridge, he was an assistant at Division II Springfield (Mass.) College.

* Jim Fenwick, Valley College’s head coach for six seasons. Fenwick, 44, was head coach at Pierce for five seasons. He was an assistant at Northridge, Pacific, Miami (Ohio) and Valley. He was a finalist for the Northridge job when Dave Baldwin was hired in 1995.

* Jeff Kearin, Northridge’s offensive coordinator the past two seasons. Kearin, 36, who has been named Northridge’s interim coach, was a graduate assistant at USC for four years.

* Mike Kramer, Eastern Washington head coach the past three seasons. Kramer, 42, is 13-20 with the Eagles. He has been an assistant at Eastern Washington and Montana State.

* Brian McNeely, Idaho State head coach for five seasons until resigning last month. McNeely, 39, was 21-34 with the Bengals. He was 55-33-1 in nine seasons coaching two junior colleges in Kansas. McNeely also spent one season as an assistant at Kansas.

* Buzz Preston, Washington State’s running backs coach the past three seasons. Preston, 40, who recruits Southern California for the Cougars, has been an assistant at Hawaii, Washington and Southern Illinois. Preston was at Southern Illinois during Bubb’s tenure there. He assisted for one season with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.

* Robin Ross, Fresno State defensive coordinator. Ross, 42, whose status with the Bulldogs is undetermined since the resignation of Coach Jim Sweeney, has also been defensive coordinator at Iowa State and Cincinnati and an assistant at Long Beach State. He was head coach for two seasons at Western Washington, an NAIA school near Seattle.