USC Trojans Football Coaching Staff 2023: Who is coaching the Trojans in 2023?

The USC Trojans nearly did the unthinkable in Lincoln Riley’s first year: Win the Pac 12 and earn a College Football Playoff berth. They fell short twice against Utah, ending those dreams.

However, in just one season Lincoln Riley's staff has brought back the excitement to Southern California football. Here's an in-depth analysis of Southern Cal's coaching staff.

Head coach Lincoln Riley's coaching record and college career

2022 Heisman Trophy Presentation

Lincoln Riley has enjoyed a rocket rise to being the preeminent offensive playcalling mind in college football. Riley started as a walk-on for Texas Tech, where he got a lot of his original philosophy from legendary Air Raid Coach, Mike Leach.

In his first season as a play caller/offensive coordinator for Oklahoma, he led the Sooners to a top-10 offense statistically. Lincoln Riley was honored with the Broyles Award for the best assistant coach in the nation.

Just two seasons after getting to Oklahoma, Riley was named the head coach in 2017. In his first year as head coach, he took the Sooners to the CFP playoff and Coached Baker Mayfield to a Heisman Trophy.

During his time at Oklahoma Riley coached the Sooners to a 55-10 record. It took a mega contract and incomparable amenities for the USC Trojans to pull Lincoln Riley from Norman, Oklahoma.

Riley has amassed a 66-13 record as a head coach with 4 Big-12 championships.

Offensive coordinator John Hensen's coaching record and college career

Arizona v USC Trojans

As the de facto play-caller for the Trojans, John Henson is more of an organizer for the offense. He is primarily the offensive line coach, a line that was a Joe Moore semi-finalist for best OL in college football.

Henson has 24 years of coaching experience, including a national championship win as an assistant.

Other USC Trojans offensive assistant coaches

USC Trojan QB Caleb Williams Cheers on

Most of Lincoln Riley’s staff followed him from Oklahoma. Dave Nichol was retained as a receivers coach. Kiel McDonald was brought from Utah to be their running back coach. Zach Hanson is a close confidant of Riley’s and coaches the tight ends.

Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch's coaching record and college career

Alex Grinch came over with Riley to the USC Trojans as well. His defenses were much of the debate circling Oklahoma, after failing to hold teams from their end zone in the biggest games of their tenure in Norman.

That argument has followed him over to USC and much of the controversy is centered on finishing games defensively. Utah blew open the Pac-12 championship game by slowly churning out runs that eventually broke into gashing plays against Grinch's defense.

Many USC fans and national pundits have come at Grinch for being the reason that Riley has three Heismans and zero national championships. As such, he could be on a short leash in 2023.

Other Trojans defensive assistant coaches

DB Coach Donte Williams was an essential higher when Riley moved from Oklahoma to USC. He immediately displayed his dominance as a recruiter, shooting up the recruiter rankings in Pac 12.

Roy Manning and Brian Odom followed coach Grinch as well. They coach the outside linebackers and inside linebackers, respectively.

USC Trojans special teams coaches

The USC Trojans infamously do not have a dedicated special teams coach. Nearly every coach on the staff shares the responsibility or a facet of the various special teams.

This has come under fire with multiple blunders and poor play from special teams in USC’s first season. But with limits on staff, this is the philosophy of Lincoln Riley moving forward

Who is the highest-paid assistant coach on the USC Trojan coaching staff?

Much of USC’s coaching salaries are obscure due to the infancy of the staff being assembled. Alex Grinch was making $1.9 million at Oklahoma and was Lincoln Riley‘s highest-paid staffer. Many believe that is the same at USC.

It took nearly $6 million to buy out all of Oklahoma’s coach’s contracts for USC to bring them over along with Lincoln Riley. This was a massive talking point in contracts between USC and Riley.

How much does Lincoln Riley make?

Riley signed a $110 million-dollar contract, worth over $10 million annually. USC agreed to Buy Lincoln’s Oklahoma houses for him (500k above asking price), and reportedly move him and his family into a $6 million-dollar property in Los Angeles.

How long has Lincoln Riley been the head coach of the USC Trojans?

The 2022 season was Lincoln Riley's first with the Trojans. USC is 11-3 under Lincoln Riley so far.

Going into a second campaign, Riley will have already doubled the team's wins and brought a Heisman Trophy winner to Los Angeles. This season they are looking to unseat Utah as the Pac-12 Champions.