USC not straying too far from original plan by hiring Graham Harrell
After being spurned by Kliff Kingsbury, USC is staying on a similar path by hiring Graham Harrell as offensive coordinator.
In early December, USC hired Kliff Kingsbury as offensive coordinator with the notion he’d be in place for at least a season before possibly leaving for a head coaching job. But that only lasted a month or so, as he took the head job with the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL.
But the Trojans have landed on a replacement, with Adam Maya of Trojan Sports first to report Graham Harrell will be the new offensive coordinator.
Harrell has been offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at North Texas for the last three seasons.
After ranking near the bottom of the country across the board the year prior to his arrival, Harrell coordinated a Mean Green offense that finished top-30 in the country in total offense (20th), passing offense (12th), scoring offense (tied for 27th) and yards per play (30th) in 2018.
Harrell was a rumored candidate to become offensive coordinator at North Carolina and Oklahoma State. But USC surfaced with reported interest on Sunday night, and on Monday it became a done deal.
#NorthTexas OC Graham Harrell is a hot commodity. Last month, he turned down a chance to be the OC at UNC but now #USC & OKState are both showing interest in him for their vacant OC jobs. The 33-yr-old ex NFL QB has helped UNT to Top 25 offenses the past 2 years.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) January 27, 2019
Like Kingsbury, Harrell is a former Texas Tech quarterback and a younger coach (34 in May). He’s also a disciple of the Air Raid offense, and also played for Mike Leach as Kingsbury did.
Harrell furthered his education in the system as an assistant, working under Leach as outside wide receivers coach at Washington State for two seasons prior to landing at North Texas.
USC head coach Clay Helton conveyed his intent to shift to the Air Raid by hiring Kingsbury. So if nothing else, the move to hire Harrell keeps that continuity in place as spring practice gets closer and players learn the new system.
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If the Trojans offense does well under Harrell next season, there may be head coaching opportunities out there for him as he theoretically helps Helton win a lot of games and save his own job.
But there’s a chance Harrell stays at USC for multiple years, which is more than could have been said about Kingsbury, even without his remarkably quick exit.