USC offensive coordinator rumors: Graham Harrell interest heating up

USC football’s interest in North Texas’ Graham Harrell appears to be heating up as the Trojans continue the search for a new offensive coordinator.

It has been almost three weeks since Kliff Kingsbury walked away from USC football in favor of an NFL head coaching position and there has been little movement on the offensive coordinator front for the Trojans since then.

That may change this week with more chatter about USC’s hiring prospects coming to light.

The big news over the weekend surrounds North Texas offensive coordinator Graham Harrell.

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“Graham Harrell is a hot commodity. Last month, he turned down a chance to be the OC at UNC but now USC [and] OKState are both showing interest in him for their vacant OC jobs,” Bruce Feldman tweeted on Sunday morning.

The talk from the national college football writer appears to back up a report from Adam Maya of TrojanSports.com on Saturday that USC and Harrell are in “deep discussions” regarding the offensive coordinator opening.

In Harrell, USC may have identified Kliff Kingsbury-lite. Like Kingsbury, Harrell was a very productive Texas Tech quarterback who still holds eight NCAA records. He too went on to play in the NFL before joining the coaching ranks.

At North Texas, Harrell has produced back-to-back Top 25 offenses in terms of yardage. In the advanced metrics of S&P+, the Mean Green offense rose from 111th in 2016 to 28th in 2017. Last season, they ranked 41st.

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Before taking on North Texas OC job, Harrell worked as an outside receivers coach under Mike Leach at Washington State. Prior to that, and while he was still pursuing a football playing career, he had served as a quality control assistant under Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State. The connection to Gundy could make it a tough competition against the Cowboys for Harrell’s services.

Whoever they land, the Trojans need to speed up the process of hiring an offensive coordinator. With five-star athlete Bru McCoy already jumping ship, securing a name who could jump in and reassure USC’s current and prospective commits ahead of Signing Day on February 6 feels critical.

UPDATE: Graham Harrell is indeed interviewing for the USC offensive coordinator job, according to Brett Vito of the Denton Record-Chronicle reported on Sunday. The DRC is publication of note in Denton, Texas, where the University of North Texas resides.

“Harrell had not accepted the job as of late Sunday afternoon,” according to Vito’s sources.

On Twitter, Vito added some flourish to his reporting noting that the “departure of UNT offensive coordinator Graham Harrell for USC appears likely.”

It now appears to be a waiting game for the Trojans as Harrell mulls his options.