Muschamp adds three to his USC staff

When South Carolina football reconvenes following the holidays, head coach Will Muschamp expects his first coaching staff at the school to be nearly complete.

Muschamp made progress in that direction Friday with three more hires – Coleman Hutzler as special teams coordinator and linebackers coach, Robbie Liles as director of player personnel and Clyde Wrenn as director of high school relations.

“Certainly when we start back here Jan. 4, I feel very confident we will be close to full speed, but I’m going to make the right decisions and do the due diligence to make good decisions for South Carolina,” Muschamp said Friday. “Staff continuity is important and making sure we hire the right guys who want to be at South Carolina is very important.”

Hutzler, 31, coached special teams and outside linebackers for Muschamp at Florida in 2014 and then had the same responsibilities at Boston College last year. The Eagles led the nation in total defense with 254.3 yards allowed per game this season.

“Coleman is a very detailed, high energy coach,” said Muschamp.

Liles, a Ridgeland native who is a USC graduate, has been at South Carolina for 15 seasons. He was the Gamecocks’ director of recruiting operations from 2013 to 2015 and has been promoted to director of player personnel under Muschamp.

“After spending a week with him on the recruiting trail and seeing his work ethic and what all went into understanding our place, I am really excited about expanding his role within our program,” Muschamp said.

Wrenn has long been a fixture in the state of South Carolina. He was an assistant athletics director at South Carolina from 1993-2004, spent seven years coaching high school football and served on Clemson’s recruiting staff for 11 seasons.

“Clyde brings tremendous experience working with the high school coaches in the state of South Carolina,” Muschamp said. “He is extremely well thought of throughout Gamecock Nation and will be a valuable asset to our program.”

Muschamp also confirmed Friday that former USC defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson will be on his staff in some capacity.

“He will be a part of our staff,” Muschamp said. “I have not defined that position.”

Former Gamecocks running back Marcus Lattimore will work for Muschamp in the team’s life skills program, joining Andre Goodman, who has been director of football development for the last four seasons.

“Both of those guys embody exactly what you want in a student-athlete at the University of South Carolina,” Muschamp said. “The players may go to those guys on things they may not come to Coach Muschamp with.”

Muschamp will model his head coaching style after Alabama head coach Nick Saban, he said Friday.

“I am going to be coaching on the field. I’m going to be on the defensive field coaching hard. That’s what I enjoy doing,” he said. “I think you ought to play to your strengths as a coach. I have been around coaches who were more of the CEO type and that was probably their strength. I don’t think that’s mine. That’s something that (Saban) and I have talked a lot about, lending your expertise to be able to positively affect your organization where you can be most effective.”

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 1:12 PM.