The reshaping of Clay Helton‘s USC football coaching staff officially continues.
During Super Bowl Sunday, it was reported that three defensive assistants would not be retained. A day later, the USC football program confirmed that Johnny Nansen (inside linebackers), Greg Burns (defensive backs) and Chad Kauha’aha’a (defensive line) will not return.
Late last month, it was also reported that Craig Naivar would be hired by Helton. Monday, it was confirmed that Naivar has been added to the USC football staff as safeties coach.
The past three seasons, Naivar worked with Todd Orlando at Texas. After a brief stop at Texas Tech following his Texas firing, Orlando was named as the defensive coordinator for USC football late last month. With the Longhorns, Naivar was the safeties coach. He was also special teams coordinator. That position could be in play as well for Naivar as USC fired its special teams coordinator in late December.
In addition to his work at Texas, Naivar also coached at Houston, Rice, Texas State and Kentucky among other stops.
To go along with Naivar’s hiring, USC football also announced that John David Baker has been promoted to tight ends coach. The 29-year-old Baker spent the 2019 season as an offensive quality control analyst at USC.
This will mark Baker’s first on-field job at any level of football.
From 2016-18, Baker was an offensive quality control coach at North Texas. The offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Mean Green during that time was Graham Harrell, who just completed his first season in those same roles for USC football.
Baker’s first job came at his alma mater Abilene Christian, where he was a graduate assistant. Baker had played quarterback for the FCS school for four seasons (2010-13).
With the hirings and firings, Helton now has two positions to fill on his 10-man on-field coaching staff.
