Limestone Dismisses Head Football Coach; Brian Turk To Serve As Interim

With two games remaining in the 2018 season, the Limestone College Athletics Department has announced that head football coach Tony Ierulli has been dismissed and that offensive coordinator Brian Turk will take over as the interim head coach for the rest of the season.

Turk, hired at Limestone by former Saints head coach Mike Furrey, is a former University of South Carolina assistant coach.

Despite going 9-12 the last two seasons, including a 3-4 mark during the program’s inaugural season in the South Atlantic Conference, the Saints slipped to 0-8 overall and 0-5 in league play following a 29-13 home loss to in-state rival Newberry College this past weekend.

“While our record and the level of competitiveness were both taken into account, there were several other factors that went into the decision to make a change at this point in the season,” said Limestone Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Mike Cerino. “After listening to the team’s student-athlete leadership, and talking with the administration, I thought it best not to delay in making this move.”

A former assistant coach and assistant director of recruiting at USC, Turk will guide the Saints through the rest of the 2018 campaign. In his second year at Limestone, he coached the running backs under Furrey before serving as offensive coordinator this season.

The Saints currently rank third in the South Atlantic Conference in passing offense while sophomore quarterback D.J. Phillips (Fayetteville, N.C.) leads the league with 228.9 yards per game. Limestone senior wide receiver Cody Rau (Litchfield, Minn.) is fifth in the conference with 532 receiving yards and five touchdowns.

Limestone travels to face Catawba College in the final road game of the season on Saturday, Oct. 27, at 1:30 p.m.