It looks like the trade between South Carolina and Southern Miss was completed today.
Southern Miss took former Gamecock defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson to be their new coach but South Carolina decided that Grady Brown would be the perfect fit to fill their last coaching vacancy.
Grady Brown was hired to be the Gamecocks' new secondary coach and assistant special teams coordinator today. Brown replaces former coach Jeep Hunter who was relieved of his duties last Friday. Brown was retained by Coach Johnson on the staff at USM and is widely considered an up and coming defensive mind. He'll get a chance to showcase those skills at South Carolina who has become known as "Defensive Back University."
Brown is a young coach at only 34 years old but he's already got a solid coaching pedigree to his name. Just recently, he coached Southern Miss to the No. 7 ranking in pass efficiency defense and set an NCAA record with eight interceptions returned for a touchdown in 2011. Brown is also familiar with his new special teams coordinator, Joe Robinson, as they both were together at LSU.
Grady Brown spoke to 107.5 The Game this afternoon and you can tell he's passionate about the game of football and he's excited for this opportunity. He's familiar with the defensive success this team has had and he knows the chance to work with Steve Spurrier is something he couldn't pass up. He even had USM's Ellis Johnson tell him to jump at this opportunity when he was approached about it. He said Coach Johnson had nothing but good things to say about his stay in Columbia and that he should come to work for the Gamecocks.
The Gamecocks are coming off a Top 10 national ranking and their first 11-win season but have lost several assistant football coaches this offseason.
Steve Spurrier hopes this is the final hire he'll have to make as he gets ready to go back to work this March.
The staff appears to be in place.
Finally.
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