South Carolina could be closer to making new offensive coordinator hire official
The South Carolina football team appears to be closer to naming the Gamecocks’ next offensive coordinator.
South Carolina’s board of trustees is expected to meet Tuesday, a USC spokesman confirmed to The State. The meeting will be at 2 p.m. The agenda will be set Monday. The meeting will be related to athletics contracts, a board member confirmed.
Trustee Egerton Burroughs said the meeting will involve athletics contracts.
“I’m sure Ray Tanner will have some names Tuesday,” Burroughs said.
Nothing is official, but the meeting believed to be related to USC’s open coordinator job. Speculation has pointed to former Colorado State head coach Mike Bobo being a top target of Will Muschamp, and The (Charleston) Post & Courier reported Sunday that Bobo is expected to be the Gamecocks’ choice when the news is made official.
The school traditionally calls the quick meetings when hiring new assistant coaches, such as when the team added Thomas Brown and John Scott Jr. a year ago.
After USC’s season-ending loss to Clemson, Muschamp promised changes and said the offense was in need of repair.
“There’s a lot of different areas that are at fault,” Muschamp said. “It needs to get fixed and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Against FBS opponents, the Gamecocks finished the season ranked 122nd in yards per play and 120th in points per game.
Former Georgia quarterback Hutson Mason linked Bobo publicly to the job on Friday, matching some reporting from recruiting networks during the week.
South Carolina has not publicly acknowledged demoting former offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon and letting go quarterbacks coach Dan Werner. Bobo and Muschamp played together at Georgia.
USC is in the market for the third offensive coordinator of the Muschamp era, as McClendon had replaced Kurt Roper following the 2017 season.
Bobo went 28-35 as head coach of Colorado State the past five years, including a 7-17 run the past two seasons. His offense was less an issue than the defense, and his 2016 and 2017 offenses were particularly potent. Bobo also dealt with a health scare in 2018.
Before that, Bobo coached in Georgia from 2001-2014. He was quarterbacks coach the first half of that, then becoming offensive coordinator in 2007.
His offenses tended to showcase talented running backs, and at times left UGA fans feeling the team didn’t get the most from the talent available. His scheme has evolved the past few years.
He also had one year as OC at Jacksonville State and has a reputation as a strong recruiter.
Between injuries and other factors, this USC season did not go as many in the program planned. At the end, the numbers were stark.
“Latter half of the season we struggled offensively,” Muschamp said after the Clemson game. “I don’t think we’re far off. I think we’ve got a good young talented roster. We got some good players in our program. I’m extremely frustrated for them. We got to make some changes moving forward.”
This story was originally published December 8, 2019 at 2:19 PM.
