With the dismissal of defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, USC had room to add another full-fledged assistant coach and that opportunity went to defensive analyst Taylor Mays, who will coach the safeties.
Mays, who starred at USC from 2006-09 before playing in the NFL, has been serving as a defensive analyst for the Trojans the last two seasons and already was very involved with the safeties, who were coached by Grinch.
"Taylor's been really just a great addition to our staff. Was here the day we came and really just had that attitude of what can I do to help the program? And he really, it was no job too big, no job too small, was here to learn, has been just very invested in everything we've done really from Day 1," head coach Lincoln Riley said Monday night on his weekly appearance on the Trojans Live radio show. "And it's just been impressive to watch his climb. It's no surprise getting to know him over the last close to two years now that he was the player that he was. You see it in his dedication, his passion, his work ethic. He's learned a lot here in the last couple years and I think has a good pulse of our guys. I think our guys respect him certainly and what he did here, what he's done on the field, and I think just that combination made it right to give him this opportunity and I think he'll take it and run with it and I think the guys will respond and play very well."
Mays was a three-time first-team All-American for USC a second-round draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 2010. He also played for the Cincinnati Bengals and then-Oakland Raiders and spent time on the practice squads for a couple other teams before finishing his playing career in the Canadian Football League in 2017.
"We love T-Mays. T-Mays is one of the best players to ever come through here. He's a legend," safety Bryson Shaw said. "Great guy and just really love working with him. We're exciting for him, and I know he's excited for the opportunity."
With Grinch gone, defensive line coach Shaun Nua and linebackers coach Brian Odom are serving as co-defensive coordinators the rest of the season.
Grinch's firing thrusts all the USC defensive assistants' futures into flux, as a new coordinator will likely want to make his own hires.
Riley was asked Monday what his message to the defensive coaches has been in that regard.
"The same thing I'm telling myself and the same thing I'm telling our players -- stay focused on the present," Riley said. "It's easy for me to lay it out for them, because I got my first opportunity to call plays and probably a sequence of events I didn't know at the time but that changed my life, and honestly I'm probably not sitting her talking to you guys today without that happening when Mike [Leach] got fired at Texas Tech and I got a chance to call it the first time. That totally changed my trajectory. And adversity like this can also bring about some of the best opportunities in somebody's life if you view it that way. I shared that with out defensive assistants, I shared that with Brian, I've shared that with Shaun, I shared that with Taylor.
"We got a great opportunity right here. The hell with everything else right now. Let's just go get in a bunker right now and just circle the wagons and go at it here for a couple weeks and see what happens and we'll figure out the rest of it [later]."
USC has two regular-season games remaining, at No. 6 Oregon this week and home next week against UCLA.
The Trojans (7-3, 5-2 Pac-12) can still play their way into the conference championship game by winning out, as second-place Oregon has one league loss already and USC would own a tiebreaker over the Ducks if it pulls out the upset Saturday in Eugene, Oregon.