USC officially announces hiring of OL coach Clay McGuire
It traditionally takes USC a while to finalize hires before they can be acknowledged, and so on Monday the Trojans officially announced the hiring of offensive line coach Clay McGuire.
McGuire, who spent the last two seasons at Texas State, had previously spent six seasons as the OL coach at Washington State under Mike Leach, coached running backs under then-offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley at East Carolina and spent two stints in a variety of roles (including coaching RBs) at his alma Mater Texas Tech under Leach and later Kliff Kingsbury, also serving as co-offensive coordinator there in 2018.
McGuire replaces Tim Drevno, who spent two and a half seasons coaching the offensive line in his second stint with the Trojans.
While Drevno has an accomplished track record at the position both in college and the NFL, and is likely to have an offensive lineman drafted in the first round for the second straight year based on current projections for Alijah Vera-Tucker, USC decided it needed an OL coach more familiar with the Air Raid principles of Graham Harrell’s offense.
In McGuire, they landed a coach who has worked under Leach, Kingsbury and Riley — three of the most successful coaches of spread-out pass-heavy offenses — and who coached with Harrell for two years at Washington State and was on staff when Harrell played at Texas Tech.
While Harrell comes from the Leach coaching tree, he has consistently maintained that he prefers a more involved rushing attack than Leach’s system, but it hasn’t worked well at USC as the Trojans dropped to 120th out of 127 FBS teams in rushing this past season (97.33 yards per game). That’s as much a reason as any why a change was made up front.
“We are excited to welcome Clay McGuire to the Trojan Family,” USC coach Clay Helton said in a statement. “His extensive knowledge of our offensive system and time spent under great offensive minds like Mike Leach and Kliff Kingsbury made him a top target for us. His ability to develop players and build relationships in recruiting will help our program grow. We look forward to the passion and competitiveness he will bring to our football team.”