A batch of names to consider for South Carolina’s open offensive coordinator spot
South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp has a certain degree of freedom when it comes to his next offensive coordinator hire.
It just has to work.
The next offense for the Gamecocks doesn’t need to be flashy. It doesn’t need to keep recruits impressed. It doesn’t need to work against whatever national reputation has built around him in terms of conservative offense.
Whether the new scheme is pro-style spread or up-tempo, or power running or anything else, it has to work or he could easily find himself looking for new employment.
His first choice in Columbia — Kurt Roper — promised speed but didn’t really deliver. His second, Bryan McClendon, had an up-tempo attack. But after a good 2018, the 2019 offense ranked 121st in yards per game and points per game.
He’ll have a choice to make and he’ll have a slew of options. This is a look at some of the big names with connections, some smaller names and even the stranger names that will inevitably get thrown against the wall.
Names with interesting ties
Colorado State coach Mike Bobo: A former Muschamp teammate who built a lot of productive offenses at Georgia. He was tagged for throwing too much in Athens, then went to Colorado State and built a set of offenses that were mostly efficient, sometimes explosive and ran at an above-average pace. They were balanced between run and pass, maybe a little more run-heavy than needed at times, which fits the Muschamp style to a degree. This could only happened if Bobo isn’t retained at his current spot. Colorado State was 4-8 this season in Bobo’s sixth as the Rams’ coach.
Wake Forest offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero: The connections are more regional than anything, having worked a lot in North Carolina. If you want a guy who adapts to what he has, he’s shown well there. At Wake, he’s had two-runner-heavy (QB/RB) attacks. He was high-flying with Matt Johnson at Bowling Green (3,400 yards) and pass-heavy and efficient at a stop at Elon. He also worked with a smattering of name players such as Marques Colston, Josh Freeman and Collin Klein. He’s an interesting name, to say the least.
Former Maryland OC and interim head coach Matt Canada: He’s been out of coaching this season and has a reputation as not being the easiest to work with. That said, he brings an innovative offense that is run-heavy (Muschamp believes in establishing the run) and tends to produce explosive plays (what Muschamp often sees as a key indicator). When it goes wrong it’s inefficient, but it created some fireworks at Wisconsin and Pitt and really wasn’t all that bad at LSU. His daughter is a USC alum and his last stop, at Maryland, started under D.J. Durkin, a Muschamp guy (Durkin was fired before the season began).
Kentucky offense of coordinator Eddie Gran: He has widely been considered one of the better offensive minds in the country for his versatility when it comes to the talent available. At Cincinnati, he ran a high-powered spread. At Kentucky, he crafted a downhill, pistol rushing attack that has helped the Wildcats become a consistent program. His schemes often aren’t the most flashy, but they do complement a defense well. He and Muschamp coached together at Auburn in the latter half of the 2000s. The only downside would be that his specialty is running backs, and South Carolina’s running backs coach Thomas Brown is highly thought of and the team’s best link to four-star tailback commit MarShawn Lloyd.
Names with tenuous ties
Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson: The Buckeyes have a backlog of offensive coordinator-type coaches, with head coach Ryan Day (a former QB coach), Wilson and QB coach Mike Yurcich. Wilson built a beast of an offense at Oklahoma and had some fun units at Indiana, which ran the gamut from more pass-heavy groups to a squad that rode Tevin Coleman to 169.9 yards per game. He’s coached in the Midwest or Oklahoma since 1990, but he’s from North Carolina and spent time at UNC, North Carolina A&T and Winston Salem State on his career ascent.
Louisiana Tech OC Todd Fitch: This had more bite before the Bulldogs lost their QB for a stretch, but he’s been a steady hand under Skip Holtz. The offense this year, before the QB issues, and in 2016 had been very good, and he was a member of South Carolina staff under Lou Holtz.
Oregon OC Marcus Arroyo: We’re talking very tenuous ties as he has no links to the Southeast but does work for a Nick Saban guy in Mario Cristobal. His offense often has kind of a ground-and-pound feel, maybe something that fits a Muschamp outlook, and the group is top-15 in points per game and yards per play. Someone will probably take a look at him this offseason.
Middle Tennessee offensive coordinator Tony Franklin: If the Gamecocks want to hand the offense to a seasoned hand, he’s extremely seasoned. He was running prolific offenses as far back as Kentucky in 2000. His scheme was good at Troy, a mess at Auburn (with Muschamp on staff), jump-started Middle Tennessee, helped Sunny Dykes rebuild high-pace offenses at Louisiana Tech and Cal, and built some steady groups at MTSU under former USC assistant Rick Stockstill. MTSU’s points per game isn’t good this year, but the offense has been more efficient than that.
Names that might be hot
Ohio State QB coach Mike Yurcich: The other part of Ohio State’s overload of OCs, he was considered a hot name after working under Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State. He hasn’t lost any shine in the Buckeye offensive machine and found his way from Division II Shippensburg to the Big 12. The issue is a lack of regional or staff ties, as the least Midwestern place he’s coached was in Pennsylvania.
Memphis offensive coordinator Kevin Johns: It’s not totally clear how much true play-calling experience he has, but he’s come through a lot of strong offensive staffs. Before Memphis, he had stops at Texas Tech with Kliff Kingsbury and Indiana with Kevin Wilson.
UCF OC Jeff Lebby: A younger guy who came to the Knights off building a prolific lower level (NAIA) offense. His background is in the Baylor tree under Art Briles. His offense is ninth in the county in yards per play and sixth in scoring.
Indiana offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer: Another former NAIA star, he has IU at more than 30 points per game in one of the roughest divisions in the land. He has three lower-level national titles to his credit, helped with the rebuild at Eastern Michigan that got the Eagles to a top-60 or so offense (this is quite a feat) and then helped Fresno State to a top-30 offense. He has few connections outside the Midwest.
Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson: No connections, but he had a fun offense at Princeton, and Mike Gundy found him online. The Cowboy offense is currently top-25.
Names that just get thrown out there
Former USC coach Steve Spurrier: He’s the one folks love to imagine. Let him work with QBs, not recruit, call plays on Saturdays and play a little golf. It’s totally unrealistic and fantastical, plus they’d have to figure out his buyout as University of Florida ambassador.
Former Arkansas coach and Clemson OC Chad Morris: He’s a guy who coached in the state and helped launch the dynasty in the Upstate. He’s also going to have his pick of any OC job he wants, and he might opt for more stability. He also benefited from a monstrous level of talent at Clemson and his scheme had its share of issues at Arkansas.
Alabama analyst Major Applewhite: He has some kind of reputation and was at Texas during Muschamp’s time there. He also had one ill-fated year as Nick Saban’s OC, couldn’t save the Longhorn offense in the late Mack Brown era, and after he took over Houston, the Cougars had to hire a new offensive mind one year in.
SMU offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee: He was a guy folks threw out there a lot in the last OC search after some time as a wunderkind for Gus Malzahn at Auburn. He had a rough go at UConn, but he helped turn SMU into an offense averaging better than 43 points per game.
Florida State offensive coordinator Kendal Briles: Folks will float him for every opening imaginable because of the memory of the Baylor offense under his father and the fact he played parts in legitimately excellent FAU and Houston offenses. There’s the lingering question about the Baylor scandal fallout and the fact his offense this season is very middling.
This story was originally published December 1, 2019 at 7:05 PM.
