The possible names to replace Marcus Satterfield as USC’s offensive coordinator

Nov 28, 2022, 3:23 PM

www.thestate.com
The possible names to replace Marcus Satterfield as USC’s offensive coordinator

Ben Portnoy
10 - 13 minutes

Shaved Beaver is facing a major hiring decision as South Carolina’s head coach.

Multiple reports from ESPN on Monday indicated that USC offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield is headed to Nebraska to join Matt Rhule’s staff after an up-and-down two years calling plays in Columbia.

Nothing was official shortly after noon Monday, but Satterfield was not at South Carolina’s football facility for team meetings, an athletics source told The State.

So who could get in the mix to join the Gamecocks as their new offensive coordinator? Here are a couple options:
The up-and-comers

▪ Kendal Briles — Arkansas offensive coordinator

South Carolina saw plenty of what a Kendal Briles offense can do in USC’s 44-30 loss the the Razorbacks earlier this year.

Briles has been a hot name in coaching circles for a couple years and was a coup for Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman to nab for his initial staff.

Despite being just 40 years old, the ex-Texas and Houston player has plenty of major college football experience. Briles worked as Lane Kiffin’s offensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic in 2017 following a long spell at Baylor. He later spent time at Houston, Florida State and, eventually, Arkansas.

Briles could be in the running for the FAU head coaching job after that school fired Willie Taggart on Sunday, but that remains to be seen.

One other important note here is Briles was at Baylor, working under his father Art Briles, when a university investigation found the football staff mishandled sexual assault allegations made against players. There’s a lot of due diligence that would need to be done here, and South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner would have to feel comfortable enough to sign off.

▪ Garrett Riley — TCU offensive coordinator

Garrett Riley’s name will almost assuredly be tossed around as Beamer looks to fill this role.

Riley has helped orchestrate one of the nation’s most explosive offenses at TCU via Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Max Duggan after following head coach Sonny Dykes from SMU.

Beamer has plenty of familiarity with the Riley clan from his time on Garret’s elder brother Lincoln’s staff at Oklahoma, and the two remain close.

Garrett Riley is a Texas native, but his past stops include East Carolina and Appalachian State, so he’s spent time in the region. At SMU, he helped engineer No. 1 and 2 offenses in the American Athletic Conference over his last two seasons.

TCU is currently in the thick of the College Football Playoff hunt. With Texas and Oklahoma set to leave the Big 12 in the next few years, the Horned Frogs are well-positioned to become one of league’s elite programs.

Assuming Riley has head coaching aspirations, its unlikely he’d need to leave TCU in order to find those opportunities. Still, South Carolina should make the call.

▪ Willy Korn — Coastal Carolina co-offensive coordinator

Jamey Chadwell calls the plays in Conway, but Willy Korn has been there from the start.

The one-time Clemson quarterback starred for Chadwell as a player at North Greenville after his departure from the Upstate ACC school and has proven an integral part of what Coastal Carolina has built in recent seasons.

The pseudo-option offense Chadwell has utilized in back-to-back Sun Belt championship game appearances would be an interesting dynamic at a place like South Carolina, where SEC athletes could be plugged into the scheme. It also includes far more passing concepts than its triple-option cousin.

Korn is young at just 33 years old. The Byrnes High alum is due for a bigger job, but this might be just a bit too big of a step right now.
The more established crew

▪ Warren Ruggiero — Wake Forest offensive coordinator

South Carolina fans ought to remember him from past years.

Warren Ruggiero has carved a bigger name for himself with Wake Forest’s breakthrough season in 2021. The Demon Deacons ranked third in the Atlantic Coast Conference in total offense and fourth in passing offense thanks to the slow mesh offense head coach Dave Clawson has helped institute.

The question remains: Is South Carolina actually a better job right now? Ruggiero can feel pretty safe with six-, seven- and eight-win seasons for the rest of his time in Winston-Salem.

Clawson also signed a lucrative extension last year and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.

Ruggiero has a good thing going, though the Demon Deacons crashed back to earth some in a 7-5 season this year. South Carolina should still kick the tires.

▪ Kevin Johns — Duke offensive coordinator

Ruggiero may not be interested, but there’s another ACC offensive coordinator who’d make plenty of sense.

Kevin Johns has worked just about everywhere, geographically speaking. His past stops include long spells at Northwestern and Indiana. More recently, Johns spent time at Western Michigan, Texas Tech, Memphis and, now, Duke.

The former Dayton quarterback has helped Duke to an upstart 8-4 campaign in its first year under new head coach Mike Elko. Blue Devils quarterback Riley Leonard ranked fourth in the ACC in passing this fall and the team finished fifth in scoring offense.

There aren’t any immediate ties between Johns and Beamer, but he and South Carolina special teams coordinator Pete Lembo worked together for a year at Memphis.

Johns worked in an air-raid background under Kevin Wilson at Indiana, but his approach at Duke has been more balanced. He’s an experienced play-caller who’d fit nicely.

▪ Jim Chaney — Georgia Tech offensive analyst

Don’t let the title fool you. Jim Chaney has about as much SEC experience as anyone out there.

The former Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas assistant has spent 12 years coaching in the Deep South and has held a handful of different roles at the NFL level.

Chaney was most recently in the SEC between 2019 and 2020, when he served as the offensive coordinator for Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee. Prior to that, he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Kirby Smart at Georgia.

Folks might show caution, though, as Chaney’s offenses at Tennessee never ranked better than 11th in the SEC. He did, however, guide Georgia to a fifth-place finish in total offense in the conference in both 2017 and 2018. Chaney was also the offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Purdue when Drew Brees patrolled the backfield in West Lafayette.

Georgia Tech is in the midst of a coaching change and it’s unclear whether Chaney will be retained. At 60, would Chaney want to jump back into the madness that comes with being an SEC offensive coordinator? It’s conceivable.
The wild cards

▪ Justin Stepp — South Carolina receivers coach

If South Carolina were to go internal, receivers coach Justin Stepp would be the name that makes the most sense.

Stepp is an ace recruiter and has done well on the trail since getting to South Carolina, proving an integral in bringing Antwane “Juice” Wells to USC this fall. He also worked wonders with Josh Vann, who’d been an afterthought most of his career in Columbia and led the Gamecocks in receiving last year.

The former Furman receiver has deep ties to the state and has said working at USC is his dream job. It’s not totally inconceivable Beamer could opt for a co-offensive coordinator structure that could lead to Stepp getting a bump in title, while bringing in a true play-caller in the way LSU’s 2019 squad did with Steve Ensminger and Joe Brady.

▪ Seth Littrell — North Texas head coach

A member of the wait-and-see club, Seth Littrell would be a welcome sight in the Carolinas for those who remember him from his time at UNC.

Littrell comes from the Mike Leach air raid offense tree. While that overhaul can take a season or two to implement, he has worked in the SEC — just look at the numbers Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers put up the last two years.

It’s not altogether clear whether Littrell will even be in the market for a new job. After North Texas started last season 1-6, it ripped off five consecutive wins and beat previously undefeated UTSA in its final game to get bowl-eligible. Littrell also has the Mean Green 7-5 this fall and is likely to stick around there.

▪ Dan Mullen — ex-Mississippi State, Florida head coach

This probably isn’t happening. That said, it’d be a heck of a get if Beamer could pull it off.

Dan Mullen is one of the best pure play-callers in college football dating back to his days patrolling the sidelines as Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator at Florida. He managed to get Mississippi State to No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings during Dak Prescott’s time in Starkville and had brief success as the head coach at Florida before being run out of town.

Mullen and Beamer are close friends. They spend summers together at their lake houses and have known each other for years.

Mullen has a good thing going as a TV analyst at ESPN and is unlikely to jump back into coaching for a college offensive coordinator job. Still, he’s been one of the best offensive minds in the sport over the last decade-plus and would be a home run hire.
Other names to watch

Willie Simmons — head coach, Florida A&M
Jeff Lebby — offensive coordinator, Oklahoma

Brennan Marion — passing game coordinator/receivers coach, Texas
Phil Longo — offensive coordinator, North Carolina
Joey Lynch — offensive coordinator, Vanderbilt
Graham Harrell — offensive coordinator, West Virginia
Mike Shanahan — offensive coordinator, James Madison
Major Applewhite — offensive coordinator, South Alabama
Buster Faulkner — quality control, Georgia

This story was originally published March 12, 2022 12:00 AM.

Profile Image of Ben Portnoy

Ben Portnoy is The State’s South Carolina Gamecocks football beat writer. He’s a five-time Associated Press Sports Editors award honoree and has earned recognition from the Mississippi Press Association and the National Sports Media Association. Portnoy previously covered Mississippi State for the Columbus Commercial Dispatch and Indiana football for the Journal Gazette in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

The possible names to replace Marcus Satterfield as USC’s offensive coordinator

Whole lot of wishful thinking going on in that list***

Re: The possible names to replace Marcus Satterfield as USC’s offensive coordinator

Graciously suggest they consider Streeter

So basically any and everybody

Re: The possible names to replace Marcus Satterfield as USC’s offensive coordinator

Re: The possible names to replace Marcus Satterfield as USC’s offensive coordinator

Re: The possible names to replace Marcus Satterfield as USC’s offensive coordinator

Re: The possible names to replace Marcus Satterfield as USC’s offensive coordinator

Re: The possible names to replace Marcus Satterfield as USC’s offensive coordinator

Re: The possible names to replace Marcus Satterfield as USC’s offensive coordinator

Re: The possible names to replace Marcus Satterfield as USC’s offensive coordinator

Re: The possible names to replace Marcus Satterfield as USC’s offensive coordinator

TigerBoard POTD