Former Gamecocks assistant finds new coaching job up north, reports say
A recently fired South Carolina assistant has found his next job.
According to a report from Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, UConn is hiring former Gamecocks running backs coach Marquel Blackwell as its new passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach. UConn Report also confirmed the move.
USC coach Shane Beamer fired Blackwell on Dec. 4 after South Carolina finished the 2025 season 4-8 and were among the league’s worst rushing offenses. Blackwell’s been replaced by former Penn State RBs coach Stan Drayton.
Blackwell was one of three offensive assistants fired during or after the season, joining offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley and offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Shula. Teasley and Shula were both fired midyear.
At UConn, Blackwell will join a familiar face in Jason Candle. Candle spent the last 10 years as Toledo’s football coach before being hired by the Huskies to replace Jim Mora, and Blackwell was Candle’s RBs coach at Toledo from 2016-17.
Blackwell, 46, had worked in position coaching roles at Toledo, West Virginia, Houston, Ole Miss and Texas A&M before being hired at South Carolina in 2023.
Although he’s more recently coached running backs, Blackwell has experience as a co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Houston (2019). He was also a four-year starting quarterback at South Florida from 1999-2002.
UConn, based in Storrs, Connecticut, is one of only two FBS football schools that plays as an independent (Notre Dame). The Huskies won nine games each of the past two seasons under Mora, who recently took the head job at Colorado State.
Blackwell is the second assistant fired by Beamer to find a new job this month. Nebraska and Matt Rhule announced on Dec. 19 they’d hired Teasley, 41, as their new run game coordinator. Former Gamecocks OC Marcus Satterfield is also on staff at Nebraska as Rhule’s tight ends coach.
Shula, 60, hasn’t publicly announced his next job yet.
This story was originally published December 29, 2025 at 10:20 AM.
