Tag: Donte Williams

Reaction: Georgia hires new defensive backs coach

Georgia football hires new defensive backs coach to replace Fran Brown

The Georgia Bulldogs have hired former USC Trojans defensive backs coach Donte Williams as the Dawgs’ latest defensive backs coach.

Williams replaces Fran Brown, who served as Georgia’s defensive backs coach in 2023. Fran Brown is now the head coach at Syracuse. Brown has already added a few Georgia football transfers this offseason and is building an impressive roster at Syracuse.

Donte Williams coached at USC from 2020 to 2023. He also has served as the cornerbacks coach at Arizona, Oregon, and Nebraska. USC’s defense has struggled recently, but defensive backs weren’t necessarily the issue for the Trojans. Additionally, Georgia has former defensive backs Kirby Smart and Will Muschamp on its coaching staff.

Here’s the reaction to Georgia hiring Donte Williams:

Donte Williams out at USC as Trojans continue to make defensive staff changes

Donte Williams is out.

Donte Williams out, Doug Belk in. USC’s secondary will indeed have new coaches as part of the complete overhaul of the defensive coaching staff under Lincoln Riley and D’Anton Lynn.

It always made sense that as soon as Alex Grinch got fired, the other members of the defensive staff would be replaced as well. That process of replacement began with D’Anton Lynn coming in as the new defensive coordinator. It continued with Matt Entz being named the new linebacker coach and a defensive assistant. It has now taken the next steps in the process.

Donte Williams is leaving USC to pursue other opportunities. In his place, USC is expected to bring aboard Doug Belk, who has been on the coaching staff at the University of Houston.

USC is losing a high-end recruiter with Williams’ departure, but the quality of his coaching in the secondary simply did not match his ability as a recruiter. It was hard if not impossible for Lincoln Riley to justify keeping Williams on the staff. D’Anton Lynn needs his guys — assistants he is comfortable working with — to form the new USC defensive coaching staff. That process continues, and a lot of Trojans are going to be relieved to see Donte Williams go. It needed to happen.

Much more on this story over the weekend and on into next week here at Trojans Wire.

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Pitchforks are out for entire USC coaching staff after failed season and UCLA no-show

No one’s job should be safe after this disaster. Not one USC assistant performed at an elite level this year.

Name one USC assistant coach who did a great job this season — not good, but great.

You can’t.

None of Lincoln Riley’s assistant coaches maximized the talent at their disposal. None of the USC assistants improved their full position group over the course of the season. When a not-that-great UCLA team bullies USC for 60 minutes on both sides of the ball, no one can say the Trojans improved over the course of the season. At the end of 12 games, they were worse than they were in mid-September.

USC fans are angry, but the anger is not wild and unfocused. It is an appropriate reaction to several weeks of underachieving. The Trojan staff should be under fire after this completely unacceptable season.

From Donte Williams to Josh Henson to Dennis Simmons to Roy Manning, this coaching staff flunked. No one’s job should be safe, with the possible exception of running back coach Kiel McDonald.

USC fans agree with that, as you can see below:

Say goodbye to coach Donte Williams, who could never fix USC’s woeful secondary

Donte Williams’ time at USC is about to end.

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:

Donte Williams, USC beat out Oregon for 4-star cornerback Dakoda Fields

Donte Williams is generating a lot of results. He just beat Dan Lanning for a Junipero Serra CB, building a Trojan wall in SoCal.

The USC Trojans have established genuine recruiting momentum in early June. Donte Williams is getting a lot of work done in the defensive backfield, his area of expertise and his sweet spot on the recruiting trail.

USC brought in Florida-based recruit Jarvis Boatwright on Sunday. Williams added a safety to the Trojans’ future roster.

On Monday, news came that Williams had secured a commitment from cornerback Dakoda Fields, a home-grown talent from Junipero Serra High School in Gardena, Calif. USC has gained help in its secondary on the boundary and in the middle, from both coasts, and from two talent-rich states. It’s a real coup for Williams, Lincoln Riley, and a USC program which are all moving in the right direction as the month of June unfolds. We’re only five days into the month, and the 2024 recruiting class is loading up on commitments.

You can see in the tweet below that Dakoda Fields was clearly sold on USC at his official visit. These visits are definitely getting the job done for the Trojans. Who knows just how many more commitments will be secured in the next 48 hours, the next week, and the next month? It’s exciting to contemplate.

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Lincoln Riley needs to fire Donte Williams, hire a special teams coordinator at USC

The UCLA game showed Lincoln Riley’s approach to special teams is a failure. Riley needs to hire a coordinator and replace one staffer. #USC

We wrote a few weeks ago about the idea that Lincoln Riley had some tough choices to consider at USC, relative to the shape of his coaching staff for 2023.

We specifically explored the question of whether it was worth keeping Donte Williams on staff, given the erosion of USC’s cornerback play in recent weeks, and in light of the reality that USC does not have a special teams coordinator on staff.

We were not fully convinced of what Riley and USC had to do for the coming offseason and the 2023 campaign.

Now we are. We think a special teams coordinator is absolutely necessary. We will lay out the case below:

Colorado football head coach search buzz: Donte Williams might make sense for Buffs

Donte Williams’ ability to recruit might make him a candidate

There have been plenty of names buzzing around as the Colorado Buffaloes search for their next head coach following the departure of Karl Dorrell.

With USC, Alex Grinch is one name on the Trojans sideline that has generated some attention. However, there is another potential candidate also on the USC staff: Donte Williams.

Yes, the defensive backs coach and former interim head coach of USC (who took over last year when Clay Helton was fired) is a listed option, according to Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.

Here are Rittenberg’s thoughts on the possibility:

If Colorado is truly looking to reestablish its recruiting pipeline to the Los Angeles area, Williams would be a smart choice. He’s one of the more established names in the SoCal recruiting scene and has brought in talent to Oregon and now USC. Williams, 40, also served as interim head coach at USC last year after Clay Helton was fired and interviewed for Fresno State’s head-coaching vacancy. He was retained by new coach Lincoln Riley and has overseen a playmaking secondary early this season. The Los Angeles native worked at Arizona and Washington earlier in his career and has spent all but one year in the Pac-12 footprint.

Williams had a tough time taking over for Helton during the 2021 season and dealt with a combination of Kedon Slovis and Jaxson Dart both sustaining injuries at the QB position. However, when Lincoln Riley was hired, he chose to keep Williams on the staff.

Another positive is that Williams has been well-known as one of the best recruiters there is, so that would be a terrific positive for the Buffs.

If Rick George can’t land a big name, Williams is definitely an interesting possibility.

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Does Lincoln Riley need to hire a special teams coordinator in 2023 at USC?

Lincoln Riley could hire a special teams coordinator next year if that staffer can recruit as well as Donte Williams. That would solve 2 problems. #USC

With USC’s defense and special teams units both struggling on a relatively consistent basis at the moment, in a year when the Trojans have a roster which is undeniably incomplete and insufficiently deep, one has to ask the tough questions.

Should this coaching staff remain intact even though we all knew Year 1 would have its share of difficulties, or is it already time to shake things up, especially if better coaches exist elsewhere and can be brought in by Lincoln Riley to improve the USC football product?

Let’s be clear: We knew Year 1 would be difficult for this staff, so the idea of retaining everyone for Year 2 is entirely reasonable.

Let’s also be clear: If better options exist, Lincoln Riley owes it to himself, the school, and the fan base to consider them.

Let’s talk about USC needing a special teams coordinator, which it currently doesn’t have under Riley:

Lincoln Riley needs to ask tough questions about keeping Donte Williams on staff

Donte Williams can recruit, but is the value of his recruiting enough to offset a less-than-stellar track record as a coach? #USC

This is getting very interesting for USC football, and not in a good way. Donte Williams coaches USC’s defensive backs and is also the defensive passing game coordinator for the Trojans under defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and head coach Lincoln Riley.

One of the big jobs of a head coach is to surround himself with the right assistants. Riley and Grinch need to improve this defense in time for UCLA — that’s the main focus here — but they also need to plan ahead for 2023 and ask themselves if it’s worth it to keep Donte Williams on staff.

Let’s explore this complicated and fascinating topic:

6 coaches Brent Venables should consider for Sooners’ vacant defensive backs job

As the Oklahoma Sooners continue to build their coaching staff, here are six names they should consider to be their next defensive backs coach.

The Oklahoma Sooners seem pretty much complete in overhauling their defensive coaching staff after none of the position coaches from the previous regime are set to return.

Only two coaching vacancies remain as defensive ends, safeties, and linebackers are all accounted for. Cornerbacks and a coach for their interior defensive line are all that remains.

We’ll look at the cornerback position to try to piece together some viable candidates.