South Carolina football coaching board: 7 potential hires to succeed Will Muschamp

What else can be said about the marvelous job Jamey Chadwell has done leading the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers this season? The Chants have been a top-25 team throughout the season. While they have benefitted in the AP Poll because of the global pandemic, all it has done is brought more attention to the on-the-rise program out of the Sun Belt Conference.

There is great coaching going on down there, and someone like Chadwell will be able to parlay that into a more lucrative Group of 5 gig, or even the right Power 5 job if it were to become available. Chadwell is this year’s Eliah Drinkwitz and he would not have to leave the state to go coach one collegiate fowl for another. However, this hire may not overly excite the South Carolina boosters.

This would signify quite the climb for 31-year-old Joe Brady. In 2018, he was an offensive assistant with the New Orleans Saints. Last year, he was the passing game coordinator for the LSU Tigers, helping the Bayou Bengals win a national championship behind Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow. Now, he is Matt Rhule’s offensive coordinator with the Carolina Panthers.

Is Brady qualified to be a Power 5 head coach at a place like South Carolina? Well, if he is good enough to be the offensive coordinator of an NFC South team, he should be good enough for the University of South Carolina. Hiring Brady means South Carolina views him as college football’s Sean McVay. However, he would be labeled as a job hopper and will face a ton of pressure.

Would Clemson Tigers offensive coordinator Tony Elliott leave his alma mater’s program for its bitter in-state rival? I mean, we did see Will Muschamp coach two SEC East teams that call his alma mater’s Georgia Bulldogs rivals in the Florida Gators and South Carolina. Elliott knows what it takes to win big at a place like Clemson. He would be a hire South Carolina would be excited about.

If there were a more robust array of head-coaching openings, Elliott would definitely be in the mix to get one of them. While he could leave Clemson for the opportunity to lead his own team next year, he may want to wait and see what 2022 will bring. South Carolina would be a fantastic first head-coaching job for him, but he may want to go to a place he is not predisposed to hate.