NFL offensive coordinator expected to emerge as a candidate for USC job

Now that the USC head coaching job is hanging out there, the speculation about who will be in charge of the Trojans sideline has kicked into full gear.

Along with all of the college coaches being tossed around to fill Clay Helton’s old gig, Adam Schefter of ESPN tweeted that NFL sources believe that Eric Bieniemy will be a candidate for the spot, and it just may be one of the only college spots to interest him.

League sources believe Chiefs' OC Eric Bieniemy will emerge as a head-coaching candidate for USC. Bieniemy is from Southern California and has told confidantes in the past, that USC is one of the only college jobs that might interest him.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 14, 2021

Bieniemy, the current Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator, was thought to be a sure-fire choice for a head coaching job during the 2020 and 2021 rounds of coaching hires. After taking over as the Chiefs OC from Matt Nagy, he has been in the job throughout Patrick Mahomes’ run as the KC starting quarterback.

Bieniemy has been coaching with the Chiefs since Andy Reid arrived in Kansas City in 2013, but he did coach at the college level prior to that.

It would likely take a large offer to get Bieniemy away from his current job, in what is arguably the NFL’s top coordinator situation, to take on a head coaching position in the college ranks.

But Bieniemy does have ties to the Southern California area, having spent a stint as UCLA’s running backs coach in the 2000s.

Stay tuned.