Texas Football: Craig Naivar joins Todd Orlando with USC Trojans staff
Former Texas football assistant coaches are starting to land in other positions as the college football offseason takes full effect this month.
A former assistant coach of the Texas football program is now headed to be one with the USC Trojans, under head coach Clay Helton. Former Texas interim defensive coordinator, special teams coordinator, and safeties coach Craig Naivar looks to be reportedly joining USC under a former colleague of his on the Forty Cares.
The former third-year defensive coordinator of the Texas Longhorns football program, Todd Orlando, already joined Helton and the Trojans in the same position this offseason. Orlando will now be joined by Naivar, who will be the safeties coach with USC. He’ll also be with former Texas five-star signee/transfer wide receiver Bru McCoy, who will be entering his redshirt freshman campaign next season.
The original report that Naivar will be joining up with Orlando at USC came from Bruce Feldman of The Athletic.
SOURCE: #USC is hiring former #Texas Co-DC/safeties coach/special teams coordinator Craig Naivar to the Trojans staff. He is expected to coach safeties.. Naivar was UT’s DC for the Alamo Bowl win when the Horns held Utah to 254 yards and 11 points.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) January 30, 2020
Prior to taking the safeties coach and special teams coordinator position with the Longhorns, he held a similar position with the Houston Cougars. Up until the end of the 2019 college football season, Naivar also coached on the staff under Orlando and Longhorns head coach Tom Herman. But Herman turned over a lot of his coaching staff after the fall, and Naivar was one of the rather unexpected casualties.
Naivar was also the special teams coordinator and safeties coach with the Kentucky Wildcats back in 2014. He held similar positions with the Texas State Bobcats and Rice Owls in the Group of Five before taking the job with Kentucky.
There was a lot of hype surrounding Naivar’s preparation in the interim defensive coordinator role ahead of the Alamo Bowl win over the Utah Utes. Texas allowed around 250 total yards and just 10 points to the Utah offense.
Now USC will be the benefactor of an assistant coach that prepared for a PAC-12 foe in his last game with the Longhorns. That is a big get for a program that could use some more coaching prowess and stability in the coming years.
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Texas replaced Orlando with former Rutgers head coach Chris Ash to be their next defensive coordinator. Ash will also be coaching safeties this year, which is probably why he won’t be returning for Texas next season.