Dan Patrick speculates on USC coaching search

We’re now two days removed from USC firing head football coach Clay Helton and the speculation as to who will be the next man in charge of the Trojans football team is running rampant.

Dan Patrick got in on the fun on Wednesday as he he shared what he has heard in regards to the job. I hesitate to call it a report as Patrick prefaced it by stating “By the way, raise your hand if you haven’t been mentioned for the job at USC. It feels like everyone is open for business here!”

Patrick eventually went around to his producers and had them guess which coach there has been mutual interest between the coach and the school according to what a source told him. P. J. Fleck, Matt Campbell, and Pat Fitzgerald were the incorrect guesses while the answer was James Franklin. See the clip in full here:

Franklin as well as plenty of others would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn’t at least act somewhat interested in the USC job. No, not by going out and politicking for it publicly but through the proper back channels. How do you think you get a raise from your current employer? I know from experience that simply being loyal and promising not to look elsewhere certainly doesn’t do the trick.

What I do know is that is seems real early in process to think that USC has their eyes set on just one person. There are several strong potential candidates, almost all of which have regular seasons they’ve only just begun. I don’t know it for a fact but I’m simply stating this feels more than a hair early.

As a lifelong Notre Dame fan I enjoyed the Clay Helton era because of the 4-1 mark the Irish had against his Trojans squads. From that perspective, Franklin would be the coach I fear USC hiring the most. That said, he’s got a pretty good thing going at Penn State right now and has roots in the northeast.

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