Justin Wilcox will leave Washington and join Steve Sarkisian at USC as the Trojans’ defensive coordinator, CBS’s Bruce Feldman is reporting.
Justin Wilcox reportedly leaving Washington for USC DC job
Wilcox will join former boss Steve Sarkisian in Los Angeles.
Wilcox was a defensive back at Oregon in the late 1990s, and started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Boise State in 2001 under head coach Dan Hawkins. In 2003 he was hired by Cal as the school’s linebackers coach, and returned to Boise State in 2006 under Chris Petersen as the school’s defensive coordinator.
In Wilcox’s four seasons as a coordinator with the Broncos, the program went 49-4, ranking fourth in defensive F/+ in 2008 and 14th in 2009. Boise State gave up just 12.6 points per game in that 2008 season, and made two BCS bowl games (winning both of them) during his time with the school.
In 2010, Wilcox was hired as the defensive coordinator at Tennessee, a position he held for two years. The Volunteers’ defense struggled in his first year, finishing 49th in defensive F/+, but showed improvement in 2011, moving up to 35th. Tennessee finished in the bottom half of the SEC in scoring defense and total defense in both seasons of Wilcox’s tenure.
In 2012, he was hired as Washington’s defensive coordinator, taking a unit that ranked 100th in defensive F/+ in 2011 to 37th the year after. This season, that mark improved further, all the way up to 20th. The Huskies gave up 35.9 points per game in 2011 and marked that down to 24.2 in his first season and 23.4 this season. USC’s defense was one of just three in the Pac-12 that gave up fewer points than the Huskies 2013, averaging 21.2 points per game.
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