South Carolina assistant coach lands job with Tom Herman at Texas
South Carolina football is in the market for another assistant coach.
Gamecocks linebackers and special teams coach Coleman Hutzler is leaving after five years to coach linebackers and be the co-defensive coordinator under Tom Herman at Texas, the Longhorns announced Tuesday afternoon. Hutzler has been a part of USC’s staff since Will Muschamp arrived in Columbia.
“I’m so excited to join the program and work with Coach Herman and Coach [Chris] Ash and the entire staff,” Hutzler said via a statement from Texas. “Obviously the brand and program that is Texas Football is second to none, and I’m ready to get started. I have a ton of respect for Coach Herman and all the great things he’s done. He’s done a tremendous job everywhere he’s been, we know a lot of the same people and just to have this opportunity to come and work for him is exciting.”
Hutzler will be joining Herman, who South Carolina went after in the the 2016 coaching search cycle that ultimately brought Muschamp to Columbia. Herman had been at Houston and took the Texas job a year later.
Hutzler had worked with Muschamp before at Florida in two separate stints. He’d also worked at Boston College and at Stanford for Jim Harbaugh. He also worked at New Mexico.
He’ll share defensive coordinator duties with Ash at Texas.
“Coleman is a coach who came highly recommended by several people I have a great deal of respect for in our business,” Herman said in a statement. “When we had a chance to sit down and talk with him, he certainly lived up to everything we had heard. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience, is high energy and has accomplished a great deal while spending much of his career coaching in big-time environments in the SEC. He’ll do a terrific job developing our linebackers and helping us grow on defense. We’re excited to get him on board and to get him around our team and out on the road recruiting for us.”
His special teams unit at South Carolina this season was one of the stronger ones in the country, led by booming punter Joseph Charlton. His group also thrived a year ago with Deebo Samuel as kick returner.
On the linebacker front, he worked with Skai Moore for one All-SEC season and way key in developing T.J. Brunson and Ernest Jones.
The Las Vegas product (he played high school ball for his father) played in college at Middlebury in Vermont.
South Carolina has already seen some staff shakeup this year, with offensive coordinator Mike Bobo coming in to replace Bryan McClendon at play-caller (he was moved back to wide receivers) and quarterbacks coach Dan Werner, who was let go. Bobo lieutenant Joe Cox was added to the staff as tight ends coach, which moved Bobby Bentley to quarterbacks and pushed Kyle Krantz into an off-field role.
USC also made a change at strength coach, firing Jeff Dillman and hiring Paul Jackson.
Muschamp a week ago said he did not expect any more staff changes.
This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 12:22 PM.
