USC coaching search stock watch: Three potential dark horses
Adam Grosbard (OC Register) — The last three editions of this column have spent a lot of time on the theoretical favorites for this job. Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell. Penn State’s James Franklin. Iowa State’s Matt Campbell. Baylor’s Dave Aranda. Even Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck, though he is likely off the market after signing an extension last week.
But who are the potential dark horses? The names that don’t get mentioned a lot for the USC job, but have raised their profile enough this season to warrant consideration?
Dave Clawson, Wake Forest
Even if the Demon Deacons’ undefeated start to the year came to a close this weekend, who would have ever predicted that Wake Forest would climb as high as the top-10 in the polls prior to the season? Clawson has Wake Forest ranked sixth nationally in total offense and third in points per game (44.7) in its fifth winning season in six years. The cons? A defense ranked 105th in yards allowed and a failure to win more than eight games in a season in a conference like the ACC that is not particularly deep.
Pat Narduzzi, Pittsburgh
Narduzzi opened his press conference two weeks ago warning reporters not to ask him about USC, a joke about the other Pittsburgh head coach’s vehement denial of a rumor attaching him to the position. But it wouldn’t be crazy for USC to consider Narduzzi. The Panthers this year are a balanced team, ranked third nationally in total offense and 35th in defense. But discipline issues (seven penalties per game) and the fact Narduzzi has yet to win more than eight games in a season should give pause, too.
Kalani Sitake, BYU
A 4-0 record against the Pac-12 has been an impressive feat by the Cougars, and it could improve to 5-0 in the season finale against, of all teams, USC. Sitake has built BYU into a power the last two years, and the idea of a Polynesian head coach at USC is intriguing given the culture’s strong history at the university. But would Sitake leave his alma mater for USC? And would BYU, on the verge of joining the Big 12, allow him to leave without ponying up a large extension offer to keep him in Provo?
ocregister.com
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Looks like it rescheduled.
Yahoo Sports — The 2021 season made it to November before a game at the top level of college football was canceled due to COVID-19. Cal and USC will not play Saturday because of COVID-19 cases at Cal. The Bears were without over 20 players in a 10-3 loss to Arizona in Week 10. Cal said that it would try to reschedule the game. The teams could conceivably play on conference championship weekend in December. If the game is not rescheduled, it would go down as a forfeit for Cal according to Pac-12 rules. Anyone in the city of Berkeley,… Read more »
I am going to have to dig up the rule on Covid Cancellations because I thought they changed it at the start of the season the season that there would be no cancellations only forfeits.
Update: USC agreed, in the spirit of sportsmanship, to the cancellation and rescheduling.
Who will want to watch that game on Dec 3/4, let alone play in it? And I was going to go all in, USC -1.5 for 22,000😉!
I guess we will never know which way you were leaning. My magic 🎱
was saying USC -1.5 but then when I shook it again it said CAL.
Donte appears finally ready, with only three games left, to stop playing unsuccessful musical chairs with the bedeviled USC QB position.
(Donte on Trojans Live Radio) — “We’re getting close to where it’s going to be one guy that takes control of the offense right now and that’s where we’re headed, You have to put the guy that gives you the best chance to win. That may be not everybody’s top choice, but it’s the best chance for this particular team to win.”
What’s the hurry, relax, let us know in a couple weeks.😩 Who’s he kidding, nothing going on inside McKay Center is about winning football games. Rotate QBs to keep fresh legs to keep from severe injury and showcase their abilities for the next coach and any other coach out there that wants to make them an offer to transfer. For the coaches it’s CYA, make a list of excuses for your next job interview.
What’s your prediction on USC vs CAL, UCLA, and BYU? Any Trojan wins there?
This could be a memorable beat down at the hands of the little gutties on Nov. 20.
Were I UCLA, I might even try to pour it on big-time against the reeling Trojans in the Coliseum. When the new sheriff arrives, USC won’t be so easy.
The only win might come with Cal but I have my doubts. Cal gets their first string back from a week of rest. SC is mailing it in especially if the QB rotation continues. You are right the little gutties could inflict an historic beat down. By BYU coaches will have interviews lined up and getting ready to pack up and move on.
Wait! Breaking News. The USC/CAL game has been postponed!
The more I hear from a read about Matt Campbell the more I hope he is put above everyone other than Fickell. Iowa St is a tough place to recruit to, Iowa is not a hotbed and ISU is not even the marquee program in the state. He does more with less and his strength is developing players. When was the last time we developed players?
None of these clowns have a chance.
Looks like it’s Franklin’s if he wants it. He seems distracted and changing agents to Sexton, who knows how to F over SC ( though Franklin is much better than Kiffy, Suck and Gomer ) looks like a sure sign he is coming.
I like Petersen. It did not take him long to clean up Suck’s dysfunctional mess at Udub. Wish he was interested.
Aranda will work too but him being at LSU already makes more sense for him.
You still think Franklin is hot property for USC? He loses too much for me. MICH beat him 49-10 the year Darnold beat him in the Rose Bowl. The Wolverines play him again at Beaver Stadium this weekend.
I’m pulling for Aranda and Fickell. Neither will probably take it, but USC football has us all completely in the dark about its coaching plans for the future. If secrecy is the goal, Bohn is batting 1000!
My money is still on Fickell. Makes too much sense with his connection to Bohn. He will see Cincinnati will get no respect from the Playoff Commitee even if he goes undefeated. Joining the Big 12 won’t be much different than the AAC now that Texas and Oklahoma will be gone and that is 3-4 years from now. He will have a golden opportunity with USC too big to pass up.
Franklin? Oh HELL no! He is a 5% improvement over the Cat. But if our sorry-ass President and BOT and AD are looking for a “woke” hire, the overpaid head coach from Pedo State U is your bitch.
I’m starting to visualize Franklin with that “what just happened” Clay Helton look on his face. You know. The one we Trojan fans became so attached to.
This is not a good sign.
Classic photo of The Cat Allen. I’d be rich if I had $10 for every time CH had that kind of look on his face. I ran across the look often in my 40 year business career when someone was put in a position that was way over their head/capability. Clay is a decent person who was put in a position that was way over what he was/is capable of. I just hope the new guy has some experience as a college HC. USC seems to have a “Bohner” about guys from Texas so my bet is on Aranda.
And besides, Helton beat Franklin the only time they faced each other, or was that because of that kid Darnold, or whatever his name was.
Todays playoff poll will be interesting with so many of the ranked teams losing last weekend. Will they continue to keep teams with 3 losses? Really? Will Alabama remain at #2? Will Oklahoma move up? Will Oregon move into the top 4? Going to be interesting but then the only one that matters is the last one. I still say just give the trophy to Georgia and forget the playoffs and polls.
Does anyone really care if USC makes it into another bad bowl and probably another horrible loss to boot? Not I. It’s only about the new coach now, and everybody has known this ever since The Cat landed upside down after the STAN beat down in L.A. Antonio Morales (The Athletic) — “BYU is a physical outfit that likes to bully its opponents and has already beaten two Pac-12 teams (Utah and Arizona State) that have beaten USC. So the Trojans’ bowl outlook is bleak. But obviously, that will take a back seat to USC’s coaching search, which has been… Read more »
When this team was 3-2 I figured 5-7 was the best they would do. 4-8 is possible. A bad bowl with a caretaker staff and no desire by the players, a waste. 19 more days and the season is over. Then we will see what future is for USC football. I think it will be bright with a proven head coach coming in and rebuilding. 😎✌
The usual answer to going to a lower tier bowl is extra practice time and TV revenue. However, our current coaches don’t practice, they malpractice and not going to a bowl might save a few future stars.
this year I’m fine not watching an extra Fauxjans game.
My money says USC declines a bowl, basically for two reasons. The coaches want to move on and a lot of the players would decline to play, wanting to put this season out of its misery and move on.
You’ve come a long way baby!
The Athletic now ranks USC football at #81 in the country. #80 is 3-6 STAN, which thankfully ended Clay Helton’s USC Reign of Terror by beating The Cat 42-28 in the Coliseum back on. Sept. 11.
Clay’s new spot, 2-7 GA SOUTHERN, is stuck even further down at #118.
theathletic.com
A big part of the problem of letting Helton go was money. So can we believe SC is going to sign off on a coach with a good but not great record to pay him $10 million per year for, say, 4-years, or $40 million. I don’t think so. So Troy won’t reel in any whales, and may have to settle for a tadpole.
And this coaching business is high risk. Dreaming that the new coach is the Second Coming, or the First Coming for that matter, might turn into your worst nightmare.
Does anybody worry that the same guy who put Donte Williams in charge will be putting a stamp on the program for this decade? So how do know we aren’t going to get the same lazy effort blind guess selection that put Donte in his position? I’m not really optimistic about the process. Does USC really think they will be in a bowl game? At this point I expect the scout team quarterback to start, go two plays before Slovis is inserted. If Slovis manages a first down, he will line up as wide out, while Dart takes the snap… Read more »
You’d really be happier if Graham Harrell or Todd Orlando, or some other clown from the USC staff were the interim guy? What possible difference would it make? Neither can do their jobs as it is. I’d be fine if either, or both, left to coach with The Cat at his new job in Georgia tonight.
Knowing what I know now, I have to agree that the current staff at USC doesn’t possess a head coach candidate (unless you are rooting for Harrell leaving for another job) But I’m just a guy without inside info︁. Bohn should have known that he had a football idiot as a replacement for the football idiot.
I don’t think Bohn cared much at all who took over as interim for USC. He had just a bunch of bad options, and he finally had the authority to kick The Cat to the curb. That’s all that mattered at the time, not the unimportant name of the poor underskilled interim coach who would have to temporarily deal with this ongoing nightmare. For all we know, some coaches didn’t want the task, because it was a loser appointment from the get-go. USC is horrible, which is why the Trojans got destroyed by another very bad team, STAN, right off… Read more »
What was weird was Binks has past HC experience. Perhaps he could see the writing on the wall and declined to do it. I think Binks has done a good job with the running backs. We have a few assistants who are not bad coaches, but are under either Orlando or Harrell and thus are handicapped by the decisions made. Special teams has been improved over past seasons, although USC does not have a return man. At least they get on the field with 11 players this year.
Naming Williams sent the message that nobody on the current staff is being considered for promotion. As far as special teams, they have a former professional Aussie Rules Footballer as punter, and never once tried a fake punt. Huh?
Against ASU he had a golden opportunity to run but kicked anyway.
Rialto, I love it that Bohn gave the job to Donte. Donte was the only elite member of this staff. But he was elite as recruiter, not a coach. My guess is he coveted the HC position and thought he could do it. He is the only member of the staff who was capable of doing significant damage to SC if he did not get the interim job and left for another school (like UCLA). By giving him the HC position and his accepting it, Bohn let Donte expose his coaching ability, which candidly, stinks. I do not see how… Read more »
I believe the rotation thing sealed the deal for him. I could have seen the quarterback’s rotate by quarter or by half, once one established a rhythm he should have remained in. He is a lame duck so essentially the lame leading the lame.
For all this hating on Donte, none of this is really his fault. The guy was placed in an impossible role that he is not qualified for. He has never even been a coordinator. He’s a position coach. Given the incompetence of our coordinators, and the mess everyone was left with by Clay, it is not Donte’s fault that he cannot handle any of this. Maybe someday, he’ll improve as a position coach, then excel at that role, then be ready for a coordinator position, and then later, take on a head coaching position. But it goes without saying that… Read more »
Poor Donte. He agreed to take on a job that is far beyond what his skills dictate. I give him credit for his naive willingness to try to help USC out in a pinch. Too bad it didn’t work. Smarter minds might have said give the interim tag to someone else, and maybe they did just that. It doesn’t really matter. Who our interim HC is doesn’t really matter either. I never even remotely considered Donte as a real candidate for the USC job. He hasn’t done anything to help himself, that’s for sure. Frankly, I don’t care if he… Read more »
If we end up with Clawson or Narduzzi I will consider it a full on throwing in of the towel.
Per Wikipedia: On January 11, 2008, it was announced that Clawson had been hired as the new offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Volunteers football team by head coach Phillip Fulmer.[8] He replaced David Cutcliffe, who moved to Duke University as head coach. Clawson’s stay in Knoxville was short and disappointing. Fulmer was forced to resign as head coach with 3 games left in the 2008 season. Incoming head coach Lane Kiffin relieved Clawson of his duties on December 1, 2008. With Clawson as their offensive coordinator, Tennessee suffered its worst statistical offensive season in over 30 years.
So he would be an improvement over our current OC.
Sitake isn’t going anywhere. The same names being considered by the media for USC are probably also the names being considered by the media for LSU, TCU, Washington St, and Texas Tech. Then consider there may be a search going on at Florida, Florida St, Washington and Nebraska. USC is not quite in a good position with all this competition. I hope Bohn has it together and that the purse is wide open because there is going to be some big money spent at the end of this season. My dark horse is DeBoer.
Frost is still hanging on and has another year:
Nebraska retaining coach Scott Frost with restructured contract, Huskers part ways with key offensive staff
“Scott Frost will be retained as the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers beyond the 2021 season, athletic director Trev Alberts announced on Monday. Frost, who is 15-27 in four seasons at the helm, has also agreed to a restructured contract, which will reduce his salary from $5 million to $4 million in 2022. Additionally, his buyout will drop from $15 million to $7.5 million…”
cbssports.com
I just read about it after I posted.
I don’t want Sitake as a head coach, but the idea of BYU giving him a big raise to stay is laughable. BYU does not pay their coaches to scale.