Hood spent five years as an assistant coach at Eastern under legendary coach Roy Kidd from 1993-98 and spent two years on Jim Grobe's staff at Ohio University, before joining the Demon Deacons in 2001 as defensive coordinator and secondary coach.
"I know all of the positives about the place," Hood said. "It's very familiar to us. My wife (Crystal) is from there and it's a place that I know a lot about."
Other possible candidates include Georgetown College coach Bill Cronin, Illinois outside receivers coach Kurt Beathard, Kentucky linebackers coach Chuck Smith and Western Kentucky assistant coach Walt Wells.
Beathard was on Danny Hope's staff at Eastern for three seasons (2003-2006), before joining Ron Zook at Illinois last year. Cronin, who has led the Tigers to back-to-back NAIA championships during his tenure at Georgetown, coached at Madison Central High School in Richmond before moving on to Georgetown College.
Another possibility is Steve Bird, who played under Kidd and coached with Hope for two seasons before leaving for Bowling Green State University. Bird is wide receivers coach at Bowling Green.
Bird stared on Eastern's I-AA National Championship teams in 1979 and 1982. Bird also has served as a graduate assistant at Kentucky and Tennessee. He also coached at Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Kent State, Tulane and Middle Tennessee.
Bird's father, Jerry Bird, played for the late Adolph Rupp and led the Wildcats to a 25-0 record in 1954.
Hope resigned from Eastern Friday to become the associate head coach at Purdue. As part of the deal, Hope will take over as the Boilermakers' coach in 2009.
