It was a long-running debate among USC fans: Was Donte Williams’ level of recruiting success worth his mediocre coaching in the secondary? Let’s remember that when Clay Helton was fired in 2021, Donte Williams took over. The USC defense that year was horrible, and actually worse than 2023. It has been really bad under Alex Grinch, but 2021 under Williams and Todd Orlando was worse, if you look at weekly scores and results.
Saturday night against Oregon, the USC secondary was atrocious. Oregon receivers had very soft cushions to work with. The USC defensive line was decent. It did not get ripped apart in the ground game as many had feared it would. The pass rush wasn’t great, but Bo Nix didn’t really need a lot of time in the pocket to find receivers who were five, eight, 10 yards open on a lot of plays. USC corners and safeties had no clue on Oregon’s early and quick touchdown strikes. Oregon repeatedly converted third and medium or third and long with easy pass plays.
Donte Williams’ level of coaching is nowhere close to his level of recruiting. When a new defensive coordinator is brought in, Williams will almost surely need to look for a new place to coach. He’s an elite recruiter, but coaching USC’s secondary was too big for him.
Reaction, as you can guess, was swift during the Oregon loss: