After USC fired their head football coach Clay Helton they put themselves in a position to find a new coach. The now Georgia Southern Eagles coach Clay Helton led the Trojans to a measly 46-24 record and coached a 5 and 7 season, one of the worst in USC history. After Clay Helton, the Trojans are looking to hire a new coach, one who truly knows how to win.
There are many candidates who USC is looking to hire but one of the First names to be mentioned was their Defensive backs coach Donte Williams. Coach Donte is widely known as one of the best recruiters in college football. Donte was promoted to USC interim Head Coach and won his first game 45-14. That was his peak in momentum; he now holds a horrible 3 and 4 record, ending any of his chances to be USC’s next head football coach.
You might say why would anyone want to coach at USC? Well USC Boasts 11 national championships and 25 rose bowl victories. That and they also are located in the heart of Los Angeles that would help provide many recruiting tools for a coach to succeed.
One big time coaching candidate is Iowa State’s Matt Cambel. He led the Cyclones to their first ever New year's Six Bowl and first ever Bowl win. He led them to a 9 and 3 record in 2020 and had to rebuild the cyclones from ground up. That might help the trojans who are losing recruits like a wildfire. One thing he has against some of the other coaches is that he is good at hiring coordinators and other coaches. That might be good since the USC AD Mike Bohn is expected to let his coaches hire their own coaching staff.
Another Big time candidate is Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell. He has emerged as one of the biggest candidates for every big job in college football. Fickell holds a 45 and 14 record at Cincinnati and is currently in the middle of an undefeated season. One of his biggest wins came against one of USC’s biggest rivals Notre Dame, where he beat them 24 to 13. That is crazy considering he is coaching a group of 5 school. He also leads the first group of five school to be into consideration of getting into the college football playoffs! Luke Fickell is still one of the leading candidates for the USC job but right now the question is will he accept. He has said that he loves Cincinnati and wants to continue coaching but who knows if that is just a bluff.
One last underdog candidate is Baylor coach Dave Aranda. He is a defensive minded coach which would be a nice change for the trojans. He was hired as the Baylor coach after he was the defensive coordinator at LSU the year they went undefeated and won the championship. He is leading Baylor to an 8-2 record and held Oklahoma to measley 260 yards which is a season low for Oklahoma's high powered offence.
USC has a big decision to make with many candidates to choose from but personally, the best candidate is Luke Fickell. I think he can lead USC to a national championship and stop the trend of USC just hiring former assistants. He will have the tools around him and can bring his coaching staff and some of his former players to USC.
