THE LATEST: Utah DC Morgan Scalley and USC
Two weeks ago WeAreSC published our first USC Defensive Coordinator Hot List. At that time Alex Grinch had just been fired and the was made up of candidates we believed Lincoln Riley, Jen Cohen and USC should contact. It wasn’t necessarily a collection of names we thought USC could get, it was more about who they should hit up.
On Tuesday Erik McKinney published his USC Defensive Coordinator Hot Board No. 2. This latest Hot Board included names of candidates we believe are realistic options and coaches USC has likely already contacted.
Former Wisconsin DC Jim Leonhard, former Washington head coach Jimmy Lake, former Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins, Nebraska DC Tony White and Texas DC Pete Kwiatkowski. McKinney also added Baylor head coach Dave Aranda to the waiting list. Aranda may or may not get fired, but if he does he gets added to the Hot Board.
But leave no doubt, we’ve heard Leonhard is the top candidate. Unlike a year ago and even earlier this season, his interest in the USC DC gig is legitimate. We’re told he still prefers to be in the NFL in 2024, but USC was prepared to offer him a nice fat contract.
First thing Cohen and Riley should do with Leonhard, is show him the hood in Palos Verdes Estates.
A few weeks back we were told Cohen had met with a representative of Kwiatkowki’s to get a feel for the interest level, if any, but we’ve heard nothing since. Not surprising considering the Longhorns are in contention for a playoff spot should they win the Big-12 Title.
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Jimmy Lake has worked for Cohen at Washington, but she was forced to fire him during the 2021 season. We’re told their relationship is actually quite solid, though. So, we’re definitely keeping tabs on Lake. He’s currently on the Los Angeles Rams’ staff, so he wouldn’t even have to move should he get hired at USC.
Morgan Scalley – Utah DC
The one person we can confirm isn’t a candidate is Morgan Scalley, despite the erroneous reports claiming USC made a significant offer. Significant was even in all caps in the Twitter report Monday.
Unfortunately the report was absolute bull****. But this is what you get in 2023, a social media drive-by report based off an untruth. But hey, got a boatload of clicks on social media. The Tweet below is approaching 500k views and Scalley has been offered nothing by USC.
We consider Scalley one of the elite coordinators in college football, so this isn’t us claiming he wouldn’t be worthy. We’re simply reporting an offer of any kind was never made by USC.
