USC football hires Stan Drayton. 5 things to know about new RBs coach
South Carolina’s new running backs coach has officially arrived.
The USC Board of Trustees approved the hiring of Stan Drayton on Thursday morning. Drayton signed a three-year contract ($775,000 annually) to join the Gamecocks coaching staff. His last coaching stop was Penn State, and he replaces previous RBs coach Marquel Blackwell, who was fired Dec. 4.
Here’s everything you need to know about the new head honcho of USC’s backfield:
Meet Stan Drayton
Drayton, 54, is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. He played running back at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania from 1989-92, was a three-time All-American and won an NCAA Division III national championship in 1990. He was once the leading rusher in Division III football history with 3,272 all-time yards.
His coaching career began in 1993 at Allegheny . He most recently was Penn State’s running back coach under head coach James Franklin in 2025. He left for USC as his position with the Nittany Lions was in flux due to Franklin’s firing and Penn State hiring Matt Campbell from Iowa State on Monday.
Coaching history
Drayton’s position at USC will be his 18th job in 33 seasons of coaching both in the NFL and NCAA. He’s mostly been a running backs coach, but has spent time as a special teams coach, wide receivers coach and more. Drayton won national championships at Florida (2006) and Ohio State (2014).
He was a head coach once in his career at Temple from 2022-24 and was fired midway through his third season after accumulating a 9-25 record.
Here’s a list of Drayton’s full coaching history:
- Allegheny, running backs coach (1993)
- Eastern Michigan, RB coach (1994)
- Penn, RB coach (1995)
- Villanova, RB coach (1996-99)
- Bowling Green, RB coach (2000)
- Green Bay Packers, offensive quality control and special teams coach (2001-03)
- Mississippi State, RB coach (2004)
- Florida, RB coach (2005-07)
- Tennessee, RB coach (2008)
- Syracuse, RB coach (2009)
- Florida, RB coach (2010)
- Ohio State, wide receivers coach (2011)
- Ohio State, RB coach (2012-14)
- Chicago Bears, RB coach (2015-16)
- Texas, associate head coach, RB coach and run game coordinator (2017-21)
- Temple, head coach (2022-24)
- Penn State, RB coach (2025)
- South Carolina, RB coach (2026)
Notable players
Drayton’s long list of stops in his career comes with an upside: He’s been around a lot of talented running backs . He’s coached seven 1,000-yard rushers, five NFL Draft picks and two All-Americans.
Here’s a rundown of the premier tailbacks Drayton has coached, when he coached them and what they accomplished under his tutelage:
- 1997-99: Brian Westbrook, Villanova (4,298 career rushing yards, 54 career rushing touchdowns in college, Walter Payton award winner and NCAA all-purpose yards leader)
- 2004: Jerious Norwood, Mississippi State (1,050 rushing yards, seven touchdowns as a senior, sixth 1,000-yard rusher in program history)
- 2012-2013: Carlos Hyde, Ohio State (1,521 yards, 15 touchdowns as a senior)
- 2014: Ezekiel Elliott, Ohio State (1,878 rushing yards, 18 touchdowns, CFP National Championship MVP)
- 2016: Jordan Howard, Chicago Bears (1,313 rushing yards, six touchdowns as a rookie)
- 2020-21: Bijan Robinson, Texas (1,830 yards, 15 touchdowns in two seasons)
- 2025: Kaytron Allen, Penn State (1,303 rushing yards, 15 touchdowns)
Penn State impact
In Drayton’s lone season at Penn State, the Nittany Lions rushed for 2,130 total yards and 177.8 yards per game, both good for fifth-most in the Big 10. Drayton coached a 1,000-yard rusher in Allen. Backup RB Nicholas Singleton scored 13 rushing touchdowns despite rushing for only 549 yards.
Carolina connection
Drayton doesn’t have any obvious connection to the state of South Carolina or new offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, but he has crossed paths with USC head coach Shane Beamer both as teammates and rivals.
The two were on staff together at Mississippi State in 2004. Beamer was the cornerbacks coach and recruiting coordinator from 2004-05. He later moved to Drayton’s old job as the Bulldogs’ RBs coach in 2006.
Beamer was the assistant head coach for offense and tight ends coach at Oklahoma from 2018-2020 while Drayton was at Texas. The two teams played in the Red River Rivalry game in each year the two were at the rival schools. Oklahoma went 3-0 against the Longhorns in that stretch before Beamer left Norman for the USC job in 2021.
