Monday EveningUpdate >> USF has now formally announced Scott as their new head coach.
Update >> The two sides are finalizing a deal, according to multiple reports this morning.
Sources share with FootballScoop tonight that the search at USF is focusing on Clemson co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott.
Scott and Tony Elliott co-coordinate Clemson's offense. On our original update at USF, we noted both Elliot and Scott as targets of the USF search.
Scott has been a part of the Clemson staff since being hired away from the wide receivers job at Presbyterian (FCS) in 2008. When Chad Morris left to take the SMU head coaching job, Scott and Elliot were both promoted to co-coordinator roles and the Clemson machine hasn't skipped a beat, and a case could be made that they have gotten even better.
Here's what we wrote last week on our South Florida update:
As for the Clemson coordinators, the world has collectively counted the days until the right opportunity to leave the nest presented itself.
Jobs opportunities seem to call every off season, but the culture behind what Dabo and his assistants have built always seems to win out.
The hire for athletic director Michael Kelly will be a key one, as we pointed out in our original update as well.
Kelly was previously the senior associate commissioner in charge of football at the ACC and the chief operating officer of the College Football Playoff before taking the South Florida job. Both gigs allowed him an up-close look at the Clemson machine and those who make the gears turn.
The opportunity here for Kelly would be to press his own fingerprints upon the program through an Elliott or Scott hire, potentially a ready-made match between a coach who knows how to build a championship-level program and a [gestures wildly at the Florida recruiting landscape] championship-level program waiting to be built.
USF is a Group of Five program that has proven they're able to win, and they're in one of the best recruiting areas in America for future college football players.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.