John Scott Jr

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***What I am hearing on the DL coach
hot- Replies: 38 - Views: 3706 - Started By: JC Shurburtt +66 from 68 users

JC Shurburtt 80296 posts
5 hours ago
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In speaking with contacts from throughout the coaching community, it remains somewhat of a mystery who South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp will hire as his next defensive line coach. I can confirm Tony’s information earlier about former Jacksonville Jaguars and Clemson assistant Marion Hobby being a coach of interest as well as Arkansas defensive line coach and South Carolina native John Scott Jr.. Either would be a good hire for the Gamecocks. Hobby has a lengthy track record of developing top-end defensive linemen and has the NFL experience plus familiarity with the recruiting footprint. Scott is an up-and-comer who is a Palmetto State native who has done good work in a short time for the Razorbacks.

Another name with Palmetto State ties that has been floated to me is Stanford defensive line coach and Aiken native Diron Reynolds. I have reason to believe there is mutual interest and he is a name to also keep an eye on. The connection to Muschamp would be Jason Taylor, the NFL Hall of Famer. Muschamp and Reynolds both coached Taylor in the NFL. Reynolds also has coached Dwight Freeney and Jared Allen during his stint in the league and most recently developed Harrison Phillips and Solomon Thomas at Stanford. Reynolds started his coaching career at Brookland-Cayce High School across the river over in Cayce. He’s a Wake Forest graduate and was a GA there under Jim Grobe. He also spent one season (2015) under Bob Stoops at Oklahoma. While he was with the Indianapolis Colts, he worked under Tony Dungy the year they won the Super Bowl. I have heard that the desire here is to get back home. He’s known as a hard worker on the recruiting trail and his track record coaching defensive linemen speaks for itself. His brother is former Florida State great and Aiken native Jamal Reynolds.

One of my best contacts in the coaching industry said not to rule out Bo Davis or Travis Jones just yet, but also floated other names from the coaching tree of recently retired defensive line coaching legend Pete Jenkins of LSU fame. Two specific names that were floated to me were Kentucky defensive line coach Derrick LeBlanc, who was a graduate assistant at LSU in 2000 under Nick Saban and Jenkins. Also veteran defensive line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh, who recently was hired at Colorado by Mel Tucker, worked for DJ Durkin at Maryland as the co-defensive coordinator prior and played at Auburn under Jenkins. Those two coaches are relatively new in their current positions, especially Brumbaugh, so I would consider them fringe type candidates at the moment.

I would not sweat the flow of information on this particular hire. There are a lot of good candidates. The important thing first and foremost is to get a coach on staff that fits and that can develop the talent currently on the roster and that is incoming. The second obviously is a good recruiter. If you asked me to handicap it right now, I could not do that. I do think Hobby is a legitimate option and that Scott Jr. is someone Muschamp has talked to. I also think Reynolds could end up being the guy and as I was told don’t throw dirt on Davis or Jones just yet. There is a lot that could happen. The movement on the staff at Alabama and staffs elsewhere have thrown filling jobs around the country into a holding pattern a bit. With certain candidates like Hobby, there are a slew of potential NFL openings to consider as well. I am told that the hire will be made as quickly as possible but they aren’t going to rush and are willing to wait on the right candidate.

This probably doesn’t add a whole lot of clarity, but I figured I would add what I was hearing to Tony’s report. I really can see any of these guys working out as they all have good resumes and lengthy experience and quite a few have ties to the state of South Carolina.

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