USC announced Saturday that defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast and special teams coordinator/tight ends coach John Baxter will not return to the coaching staff.
If the Trojans weren't going to get a new head coach -- which was decided earlier this month -- then those were the next two moves the fan base was pining for most.
Fan frustration with the defense and special teams units was further validated in USC's 49-24 Holiday Bowl loss to Iowa on Friday night in San Diego, as the defense allowed the Hawkeyes to score its most points all season and convert on 7 of its first eight third-down and fourth-down opportunities while the special teams unit allowed a pivotal 98-yard kickoff return touchdown.
Head coach Clay Helton deflected a postgame question about whether he'd look to make staff changes, but he indeed acted fast after the end of the season in making those two moves. Also, it was announced earlier in the day by NC State that USC outside linebackers coach Joe DeForest is leaving to become the Wolfpack's safeties coach.
"I want to thank coach Pendergast and coach Baxter for their dedicated service and efforts," Helton said in a statement released by USC. "However, in evaluating our team's performance this year and after consulting with AD Mike Bohn, it is evident that these changes are necessary.
"Although we did fight through adversity all season and we showed improvement over the previous year, my coaching staff and I fell short of fielding a championship team. We are taking immediate steps to improve our competitiveness and meet the winning expectations of our student-athletes and fans."
Critics can note that USC actually acted late with these changes as many other programs have already fired and hired coordinators since the end of the regular season, not waiting for bowl games to finish as the Trojans did.
Though Yahoo! Sports' national college football reporter Pete Thamel tweeted that USC had already been looking into replacements.
USC ranks 77th nationally in total defense, giving up 408.5 yards per game, and 78th in scoring defense at 29.4 points per game. That was actually worse than last fall when the Trojans ranked 60th in total defense (388 YPG) and 64th in scoring defense (27.0 PPG).
It wasn't just the mediocrity on defense that drew scrutiny to Pendergast. He was not an active recruiter for the program, and there was frustration that USC's chances of landing 5-star LB Justin Flowe (who signed with Oregon earlier this month) were ultimately felled by the defensive staff's recruiting approach.
Pendergast has been USC's defensive coordinator since 2016 after previously serving in the position in 2013 as well. He was the defensive coordinator at Cal from 2010-12 and has otherwise spent most of his coaching career in the NFL in various roles.
Safety Isaiah Pola-Mao was asked after the game about the speculation for potential staff changes and the possibility of having a new defensive coordinator in 2020.
"At the end of the day, college football is a business, so you can't get too attached to people because jobs can change very easily," he said. "But at the end of the day, we just have to play football and make every call count."
As for the special teams unit, USC actually ranks last among all 130 FBS teams in kickoff coverage, allowing 29.78 yards per return and giving up two touchdown returns -- a costly one late in the first half of a crushing loss to Oregon and a 98-yard return in the first half Friday night to Iowa's Ihmir Smith-Marsette.
"It's significantly frustrating to have that happen tonight. The first couple we covered them great, so the bottom line is that should not happen with that kind of regularity. That's just, it's not good," Baxter said after the game.
USC also ranks 83rd in punting (41.17 yards per punt), but a more respectable 35th in punt coverage (5.7 yards per return) and 57th in kickoff returns (21.10 yards per return with one TD).
Baxter also noted Friday night he still believed he was the right coach to fix it.
"Of course. At the end of the day, I mean, it's players, system and coaches, and you take hard looks at all of them. So, yeah," Baxter said.
Helton, who has long defended and supported Baxter, decided it was time to move on.
Baxter had also been on staff since 2016 after a previous stint at USC from 2010-13.
These were moves many fans clamored to have happen at the end of a 5-7 campaign last year when Helton did shake up much of his staff, including bringing in a new offensive coordinator in Graham Harrell, hiring new coaches for the DBs, DL and RBs, moving two other coaches to new positions and promoting DeForest.
But he stopped short of replacing his other coordinators at that time, and as those units continued to struggle this fall it remained a major source of ire for fans.
Now, Helton will hope changes in those areas produce the same kind of immediate results that Harrell's hiring did for the USC offense.
