Southern Cal can’t miss again
Good candidates abound for school with two strikes
We say it so often it has become a cliché, but in this case it’s absolutely true. Southern California must nail this hire.
Whether it’s Pat Haden making the call or the school president or one of the Trojans’ big boosters, there is no room for error.
If USC gets this one wrong, it risks slipping into a decade of irrelevance. Much like Tennessee, even a traditional power can’t just keep cycling through coaches and expect instability to bring championships.
Unless the Trojans can resurrect their season under interim coach Clay Helton, this will be seven years without a Pac-12 Conference title at USC. Though it might be difficult to re-create the era of dominance Pete Carroll created, a stretch like that should never happen.
Twice in a row, USC has gone for flashy young coaches with strong recruiting ability but very little heft to their on-field coaching résumés. This time, the Trojans need to go the opposite direction and hire a grown-up with an established track record of building a disciplined on-field product and off-field culture.
The next coach will inherit a very talented team, and it should not take long to build a championship contender, given all the built-in advantages at USC. Here is a list of coaches the Trojans could and should pursue, culled from opinions of numerous people in the industry. 1. CHIP KELLY This one is fairly obvious. The combination of USC’s resources and Kelly’s offense would be a slam-dunk winner, similar to when Nick Saban left the Miami Dolphins for Alabama. It’s unclear whether Kelly is interested in leaving the NFL, but this would be one of the very few opportunities that could force him to take a look. The NCAA penalties on his watch at Oregon could work against him with some in the USC brass, given the situation the Trojans went through with Reggie Bush. 2. BRIAN KELLY It seems unlikely on the surface that Kelly would leave Notre Dame for a rival that plays the Fighting Irish every year, but he would be an excellent fit and bring a much-needed vibe of ma- turity and class to the USC operation. He has also made comments this season referencing the difficulties of the Notre Dame job, particularly academically, and how the external pressures chew up coaches and spit them out. “There’s no question, you can’t do this job for 15 years,” he said. He has been at Notre Dame for six. If he’s looking for a change, this would be as good as it gets. 3. KEVIN SUMLIN The Trojans and Sumlin had mutual interest the last time the job came open, but conversations never got serious. It’s hard to believe Sumlin would leave Texas A&M, given his $5 milliona-year contract, the facilities Texas A&M has built for him and the kind of players he’s bringing in now. On the other hand, USC is a place where you can win national championships. History says it’s much harder at Texas A&M.
4. JEFF FISHER Though he has no experience in the college game, there are few, if any, negatives to the possibility of bringing the former Trojans star defensive back home. Fisher has gravitas and might bring a Carroll-type vibe to the program. He understands how the media work and could assemble a staff of assistants to help with recruiting. It’s unclear if he would have any interest in leaving the St. Louis Rams. 5. BOB STOOPS His track record speaks for itself, and some have speculated that a change of scenery might do him good after 17 years at Oklahoma. It seems like things have gotten a little stale for that program, but Stoops hasn’t forgotten how to coach. He would be an absolute home run for the Trojans. PLUS FIVE MORE Pat Fitzgerald, Mike Gundy, Troy Calhoun, Dan Mullen, Justin Fuente.