New South Carolina assistant finishes national title run, ready to join Gamecocks

Dan Werner and his staff at Ole Miss in 2015 were the first SEC school to offer Hawaiian quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Monday night, Werner was an offensive analyst at Alabama, watching Tagovailoa lead the Crimson Tide back from a deficit to win a national title.

And Tuesday, with his tenure at Alabama complete, he tweeted he’s ready to join South Carolina football as quarterbacks coach and come to Columbia on Wednesday.

Werner’s hire was announced last Friday, along with the hiring of Bryan McClendon. USC is expected to announce its hire for the new 10th assistant job this week.

Werner helped build Hugh Freeze’s most prolific offenses at Ole Miss and worked with top-flight passers such as s Chad Kelly, Bo Wallace, Ken Dorsey, Gino Torretta and Steve Walsh.

After getting let go by the Rebels following the 2016 season, Werner caught on with Nick Saban’s staff.

“Dan has got a wealth of knowledge and experience as a play caller, as a developer of quarterbacks,” South Carolina’s Will Muschamp said. “I called Nick, nobody I’ve got more respect for in their opinion, (and talked to him about) how Dan has helped their offense this season with schematically some things that are very similar to what we do.”

Muschamp remembered that 2015 Ole Miss unit that set school records in scoring (531 points), touchdowns (68), total offense (6,731 yards), passing yards (4,351 yards), passing touchdowns (35), 50-plus point games (four) and games with more than 600 yards of offense (three) and got Werner a Broyles Award nomination.

“They were creative,” Muschamp said. “They played with a lot of tempo; they were aggressive; they had good players, but they were coached extremely well. As a coach, you always kind of have a short list of guys who impress you, and he certainly that day did.”

This story was originally published January 9, 2018 at 3:19 PM with the headline "New South Carolina assistant finishes national title run, ready to join Gamecocks."