HATTIESBURG, MISS. ? Rip Scherer and Dave Warner, two former Kansas University assistant coaches, have been fired by Southern Mississippi head football coach Jeff Bower.

Scherer was offensive coordinator and Warner wide receivers coach for the Golden Eagles. Both had been on Bower’s staff for two seasons.

“It’s always hard,” Bower said of the firings, “but you always evaluate where you are and see where you are going, and I just felt like I needed to make changes.”

Scherer and Warner helped the Golden Eagles post a 16-9 record over the last two years, but Bower said he didn’t think his team had made progress on offense.

“I don’t think we got any better,” he said.

Scherer was co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Terry Allen at Kansas in 2001. He was out of coaching in 2002, then joined Bower’s staff in 2003.

Warner was KU quarterbacks coach under Glen Mason from 1988-96. Since leaving KU, Warner worked as an aide at Bucknell, Wyoming, UConn and Houston before his stint at USM.