South Carolina alum, Super Bowl champion to fill out coaching staff
Rod Wilson grew up in South Carolina. He played his college ball for the USC Gamecocks. He even started his coaching career in the Palmetto State.
And now, after winning a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs, Wilson is coming back to Columbia as Gamecocks linebackers coach, a source close to the program confirmed to The State.
Rumblings involving his name started days before the school added Tracy Rocker officially as defensive line coach. Wilson is set to take over the linebacker coach position vacated by Coleman Hutzler, who went to Texas.
A native of Cross, South Carolina, Wilson played a variety of positions at South Carolina through the 2004 season, when he led the team in tackles. He was a seventh-round draft pick by the Chicago Bears and spent six seasons in the NFL with four teams.
He broke into coaching with Charleston Southern from 2013-16, jumped to Furman for less than a month and then joined the staff of the Chiefs. He was an assistant special teams coach in Kansas City.
The move is another in a series of coaching changes that followed February’s National Signing Day.
Rocker replaced John Scott Jr., who departed for Penn State. Drew Hughes took over player personnel director duties for Matt Lindsey, who is taking a larger role at Ole Miss. Running backs coach Thomas Brown departed for the NFL’s LA Rams.
Wilson is actually filling the spot Brown vacated. Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp had been set to take over the linebacker spot after adding Joe Cox and re-promoting Kyle Krantz. At the time, that left the staff with four defensive assistants and six on offense, but that has been balanced out.
Muschamp has several options to reshuffle his offensive staff and fill in the running backs role. Bobby Bentley, who is currently an assistant quarterbacks coach alongside offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, has coached running backs and tight ends before. Wide receiver coach Bryan McClendon also has coached running backs. Cox is the tight ends coach but has also coached wide receivers.
The school has not announced the move and no board of trustees call has been set yet to approve any additional contracts. Spring practice starts Feb. 26
This story was originally published February 18, 2020 at 8:39 PM.
