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Rumors are swirling this morning about a Texas Tech assistant coach. Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports is reporting that Todd Orlando is in negotiations to become USC’s next defensive coordinator.
Sources: USC working toward a deal to make Todd Orlando defensive coordinator. Orlando was defensive coordinator at Texas, Houston, Utah State and FIU. He brings a history of strong performances/improvements in Year 1.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 20, 2020
Orlando came to Texas Tech as the Assistant Head Coach and the linebackers coach. He was also going to be the co-defensive coordinator. His experience was prestigious as he had been a defensive coordinator at the Division 1 level for over 15 years including 2 seasons at Utah State with current Texas Tech Head Coach Matt Wells.
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This move should have honestly been expected from a lot of people. Orlando has a ton of experience coaching defense and there would have been a lot of potential suitors for him to come to coach their defense. Orlando did not have too much of an impact with Texas Tech’s program as he was only brought on board just a couple of weeks ago.
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There are many candidates to replace him, one of which being another coach that Wells has worked with in Kevin Clune. Clune has been coaching in the Division 1 ranks for over 15 years with stops at Weber State and a 5 season stop at Utah State to be the linebackers coach before returning there in 2015 to be Matt Wells’ defensive coordinator. He has tons of experience coaching linebackers and might do the trick for this coaching staff.
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Another kind of out there solution would be Joe Lorig of Penn State. Lorig also has a good amount of experience and has coached with Wells before as he was the linebackers and safeties coach at Utah State from 2014-2015. He was at Penn State as the Special Teams Coordinator last season.
Todd Orlando was a great hire for the Red Raiders but someone was bound to come along and steal him away and it appears that someone is USC. The Red Raiders will now be looking for another linebacker or defensive backs coach as Keith Patterson might move back to linebackers with this move.