On Wednesday evening, the news broke that the USC football team hiring Mike Ekeler will be his new special teams coach and that secondary coach Doug Belk will not return to USC in 2026.
USC also hired a new member of its strength and conditioning staff in recent weeks, but did not replace D’Anton Lynn with a new defensive coordinator.
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Why did USC make smaller changes to its staff, but not announce the big change? This leaves many Trojan fans perplexed. Let’s talk about it.
USC seems to want to keep most of its defensive staff
There is a good reason why Trojan horses want to keep most of their defensive staff intact: They want to preserve the elite 2026 recruiting class, which is committed to playing with USC’s position coaches.
But that could be a hurdle with new defensive coordinator candidates. Most reputable defensive coordinators will want to bring in their own team of assistant coaches to work with.
Belk’s firing is perhaps indicative of this attitude.
The day after Belk left USC, Connor Morrissette of USCfootball.com reported it:
“Former TCU head coach Gary Patterson is expected to be hired in the coming days and bring in a new safeties coach,” Morrissette wrote in an article.
It appears USC is parting ways with Belk as part of the Patterson negotiations. If that’s the case, USC likely wants to retain ultimate control over the defensive backs, but has agreed to part ways with Belk so Patterson can hire a new safeties coach or handle coaching the secondary himself.
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This way, even if Patterson can’t step in and choose who he wants to fire, he has some opportunities to work on to hire additional staff members.
So what’s the problem?
But if that’s the case, and USC is already making concessions for Patterson, why haven’t they announced his hiring? Or at least, why hasn’t the news been officially announced?
USC does not appear to have a public relations reason to keep Patterson’s hiring a secret. Why wouldn’t they want to announce the hiring of a legendary coach who just recently elected to the College Football Hall of Fame?
There may still be some sort of delay. If that’s the case, and USC parts ways with Belk before we know for sure that Patterson will join, it’s a risky move. Unless USC plans to part ways with Belk anyway.
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Would USC have fired Belk anyway?
If USC wants to keep the rest of its defensive staff, I don’t see why Doug Belk would be the right choice. Sure, USC’s secondary struggled a lot in 2025, but the safeties Belk was primarily responsible for tutoring were one of the strong points of this defense. American Consensus Bishop Fitzgerald is a clear example.
USC’s linebackers and defensive line also struggled at times, but the Trojans did not return Rob Ryan or Eric Henderson. Cornerbacks coach Trovon Reed is also expected to return.
Additionally, Belk is considered an elite recruiter, like many other USC assistants.
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Maybe it’s just a source problem
The most likely scenario is that Patterson’s hiring has already happened, at least unofficially, and USC is keeping it under wraps. This would mean that Belk’s separation was made as a result of Patterson’s hiring and his terms for his defensive team.
In this scenario, the Belk news before the Patterson news would simply be because a source close to Belk informed the media of this development, while the sources close to Patterson have not yet informed the media.
Again, this doesn’t exactly explain why USC is keeping the news about Patterson a secret or why the news that Patterson spoke at USC is made public, but the news that USC hired him is not.
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But as illogical as it may seem, that’s probably what’s happening.
Other USC recruits – are they related?
It’s also possible that new special teams coach Mike Ekeler will be part of Gary Patterson’s defensive staff. Ekeler has a history of coaching linebackers, including at USC in 2013. If Belk’s departure was Patterson’s doing, I don’t see why he couldn’t have had a say in Ekeler’s hiring.
My guess is that the addition of Ray Thomas to the strength and conditioning team is just a hiring of Trumain Carroll, given that the strength team works holistically with all three phases of the football team. Additionally, Thomas previously worked with Carroll at Kansas State.
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Trojans fans can only wait and see what happens at the defensive coordinator position in the coming days.
This article was originally published on Trojans Wire: Doug Belk leaves, Mike Ekeler hired, still no USC defensive coordinator
