LSU assistant coaches Joe Sloan and Cortez Hankton must have passed the audition.

The coaching duo, who took over as interim co-offensive coordinators for LSU’s ReliaQuest Bowl victory Wisconsin, will split the role full-time going forward, head coach Brian Kelly said.

They replace Mike Denbrock, who directed LSU’s nationally No. 1-ranked offense last season but left before the bowl game for the same position at Notre Dame.

Sloan, who will call the plays, will continue to coach quarterbacks while Hankton will coach the wide receivers. It’s the same arrangement they had for the bowl game.

It leaves Kelly with one assistant spot to fill on the offensive staff — tight end, the position Denbrock coached.

Kelly said that for the bowl game Sloan concentrated on the run game and quarterback protections while Hankton formulated the routes for the passing game.

He had said at the time that it would be “foolish” not to consider Sloan and Hankton to handle the job permanently after the performance of last season’s offense. He must have been pleased with the 495 yards the Tigers ran up in the 35-31 victory despite Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels opting out of the game.

Both came to LSU when Kelly took over as head coach two years ago.

Sloan was at Louisiana Tech for nine years where he first coached wide receivers before later taking over as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He was Tech’s interim head coach when Skip Holtz was fired late in the 2021 season.

He got a lot of the credit last year for Daniels’ Heisman Trophy season after working with him to be more aggressive on downfield throws.

Hankton, a New Orleans native who played college ball at Texas Southern and spent six years in the NFL, coached at Georgia for four years before joining Kelly’s staff. He also coached at Vanderbilt and Dartmouth.

Both are known as dynamic recruiters, Kelly said.