The USC defensive staff makeover continues. Donte Williams has left the program, which means the Trojans and Lincoln Riley needed a new defensive back coach. Riley needed to give D’Anton Lynn more high-quality help.
Mission accomplished.
You will notice that USC has hired an FCS head coach as a linebacker coach (Matt Entz from North Dakota State). Now the Trojans have hired a defensive coordinator as a position coach.
Doug Belk, who has been the defensive coordinator at Houston the past three seasons, is coming aboard as USC’s defensive back coach.
Going from Houston to USC is an upward move … if we are talking about the same position at the two schools. However, going from a Power Five coordinator (Houston is now a Power Five program since the Cougars are in the Big 12) to a Power Five position coach job is, at best, a lateral move if not a downward one.
Riley and D’Anton Lynn are convincing coaches to take downward steps — purely in terms of roles within the coaching hierarchy (head coach-coordinator-position coach) — to come to USC. They have clearly sold Matt Entz and now Doug Belk on the value of coaching the Trojans and turning this program into a College Football Playoff program.
Donte Williams out and Doug Belk in? That seems like a dramatic coaching upgrade in the secondary for USC.
USC is expected to hire Doug Belk as a defensive backs coach, sources tell @247sports.
Belk, who was the Cougars’ defensive coordinator the last three years, was a Broyles semifinalist in 2021.https://t.co/dJORJ80Uo5 pic.twitter.com/CJ6Ec3pjoY
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) December 16, 2023
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