ESPN's Adam Rittenberg and Chris Low reported Friday evening that USC tight ends coach John David Baker is expected to leave for a job at Ole Miss.
The Athletic's Bruce Feldman added further context, reporting that Baker would become the passing game coordinator in addition to tight ends coach with the Rebels.
Baker, who played quarterback at Abilene Christian in Texas, spent one season as the Trojans' TEs coach after a year as an offensive analyst. He had joined the program when Graham Harrell was hired as offensive coordinator, as the two are close friends.
"We’re about as close to brothers as you can get without actually being brothers," Baker said last March. "We’ve known each other for a long time. The cool thing about us is our relationship was forged as a friendship before it was colleagues. So we have a lot of trust in each other. We’re pretty close."
That's what makes the move to Ole Miss somewhat surprising. When talking back in March about Harrell being courted for other jobs last offseason, Baker explained how the two were in close contact through that process as it likely would have had an impact on him as well.
"I always trust him -- because more than likely his decision affects me -- I always trust his decision [that] he's going to make the right one," Baker said then.
Baker helped USC land two tight ends in this 2021 recruiting class, signing 4-star Michael Trigg (Tampa, Fla.) -- the No. 3-ranked TE and No. 68 overall prospect nationally -- and 3-star Lake McRee (Austin, Texas).
USC now has another staff position to fill after making two earlier moves, replacing head strength and conditioning coach Aaron Ausmus with Robert Stiner (from Notre Dame), and dismissing offensive line coach Tim Drevno while hiring Clay McGuire from Texas State in a move that hasn't officially been announced by the program yet.
The Trojans could use Baker's departure as another opportunity to promote within -- offensive analyst Seth Doege is another close friend of Harrell's who has been instrumental in USC's QB recruiting the last two years -- or start another coaching search.
