Back by overwhelming demand, FootballScoop will once again examine the assistant coaching hires that will have the biggest impact on the college football season and the coaching job market in the 2020 season and beyond.
No. 20: Zach Arnett, Mississippi State
No. 19: Larry Fedora, Baylor
No. 18: Justin Hamilton, Virginia Tech
No. 17: Sean Gleeson, Rutgers
No. 16: Adam Fuller, Florida State
No. 15: Matt Lubick, Nebraska
No. 14: Mike Bobo, South Carolina
No. 13: Rhett Lashlee, Miami
No. 12: Marvin Lewis and Antonio Pierce, Arizona State
No. 11: David Ballou and Matt Rhea, Alabama
No. 10: Scott Cochran, Georgia
No. 9: DJ Durkin, Ole Miss
No. 8: Joe Moorhead, Oregon
Who: Todd Orlando, USC
Title: Defensive coordinator
Previous stop: Texas defensive coordinator/linebackers coach (2017-19)
Why he's important: On Dec. 1, Todd Orlando was officially let go as Texas's defensive coordinator.
On Dec. 4, USC announced Clay Helton would be retained for the 2020 season, ending a 10-day purgatory where his job publicly hung in the balance. This was the second straight season, under two different athletics directors, where Helton's hold on college football's top job west of the Rockies that he had to be publicly retained for the following season.
Safe to say, these two arrived at this point in need of each other.
In 2019, USC lightly exceeded expectations after a debacle of a 2018 season. Behind true freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis and new offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, the Trojans went from five wins to eight, including a 5-2 mark down the stretch. Those two losses, though, were ugly: 56-24 to Oregon, 49-24 to Iowa. That last one ended Clancy Pendergast's 4-year run at USC's defensive coordinator.
Helton took nearly a month before he hired Orlando, who had previously agreed to join Texas Tech's staff as assistant head coach and linebackers coach before USC came calling. (Helton actually changed out his entire defensive staff. Craig Naivar followed Orlando from Texas as safeties coach, Donte Williams was hired from Oregon to coach corners, and Vic So'oto arrived from Virginia to coach the line.)
Texas was Orlando's fifth defensive coordinator job, but only the second time he'd remained in the same job longer than two years (the other was UConn back from 2005-10). The numbers indicate Big 12 offensive coordinators figured Orlando's 3-down, blitz-from-anywhere scheme out:
Yards Per Play (Big 12 Rank)
2017: 5.19 (2nd)
2018: 5.60 (3rd)
2019: 6.11 (8th)
Scoring Defense
2017: 21.2 (3rd)
2018: 25.9 (4th)
2019: 27.5 (7th)
Passing Efficiency
2017: 125.04 (1st)
2018: 134.92 (4th)
2019: 144.04 (8th)
Third Downs
2017: 27.14 percent (1st)
2018: 44.29 (7th)
2019: 39.13 (5th)
That said, the pieces are in place for USC to succeed immediately under Orlando. Texas's 2017 defense was, as the numbers showed, arguably the best in its conference, and followed a track record of Orlando providing an instant shot in the arm.
Asked about the Orlando Effect back in March, he attributed it to a multiple scheme that's easy to install but confusing to read and to a take-no-prisoners physical mentality. For instance, USC planned to go full contact for nine of 24 periods in an upcoming spring practice at the time he gave this answer.
"It is multiple and it can be installed rather quickly," he said. "Initially when you come in it's hard to prepare for, especially because there's some uncertainty to it. A lot of the times you see improvements based on mentality, too, the way the training is, more than the actual scheme. We come in and it's, 'We're going to be fundamental, we're going to be technical, and we're going to run as hard as we can at somebody and try to blast them.' We just try to keep it that simple to kids, and then as we go in it's multiple enough to confuse some guys."
Texas jumped from 60th to 37th nationally in yards per play in Orlando's first season in Austin. In 2011, Orlando's debut at Florida International, FIU went from 64th to 18th. Orlando's first season at Utah State in 2013 -- one where he followed a guy named Dave Aranda -- saw the Aggies maintain a top-5 ranking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsix8A8YfVM
And that may be just what the doctor ordered for Helton to win some long-awaited security in Los Angeles.
USC's offense should easily be the best in the Pac-12, and the defense returns 87 percent of its production from a year ago, seventh most in the country.
Add all that together, and USC could easily find itself completing a 5-7 to conference champions 2-year turnaround. (Any Playoff aspirations will become apparent early; the Trojans open in Dallas against Alabama.)
It's difficult to imagine Helton twisting in the wind for a third straight regular season. Either Mike Bohn will endorse him for the long haul in the form of a new contract, or he'll let him go completely.
Similarly, USC represents something of a last stand for Orlando as well. Whatever aspirations he has, to become a head coach or simply to remain a Power 5 defensive coordinator, are dependent upon succeeding at USC. And considering the paragraph above, Orlando needs to provide instant improvement.
He's done it before, and his career could depend on him doing it again.