South Carolina football hiring special teams coach with NFL ties, report says
South Carolina football traded a future NFL special teams coach for a former pro coordinator this week.
USC is “expected to hire” Matthew Smiley as its next special teams coordinator, per a report Friday morning from ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Smiley has worked in the NFL for more than a decade and was last a special teams coordinator with the Buffalo Bills from 2022-24. The move comes after former Gamecock coordinator Joe DeCamillis was named the Las Vegas Raiders’ new special teams coach on Monday.
With the addition of Smiley, USC’s 2026 coaching staff will feature five new assistant coaches.
Smiley is set to become USC’s third special teams coordinator in six seasons under Beamer. The last two coordinators, DeCamillis and Pete Lembo, were also associate head coaches at USC.
Smiley started in the NFL as an assistant special teams coordinator with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2013 before taking the same job with Buffalo in 2017. He was promoted to the lead job in 2022.
Before the NFL, Smiley bounced around multiple college coaching positions after starting as an assistant quarterbacks coach at Dartmouth in 2005. He also made stops at Eureka, Eastern Illinois and Charleston Southern. He spent four games as interim head coach with Eureka in 2008.
In his final year with the Bills, Smiley’s unit finished 26th in the NFL in average kickoff return yards and sixth in average punt return yards. Buffalo made 82.8% of its kicks in 2024 and averaged 45.9 yards of distance per punt.
Smiley will lead one of the NCAA’s most dynamic punt return units from last season. USC finished 17th in the nation for average punt return yards. Vicari Swain’s three punt return touchdowns in 2025 were tied for first in the nation and tied a single-season program record, and he’s returning to USC for 2026.
South Carolina football’s new assistant coaches for 2026
- Deion Barnes, defensive ends/outside linebackers coach
- Kendal Briles, offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach
- Randy Clements, offensive line coach
- Stan Drayton, assistant head coach (offense)/running backs coach
- Matthew Smiley, special teams coordinator
This story was originally published February 20, 2026 at 9:22 AM.