Ted Gilmore, former Nebraska wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator, will coach the USC Trojans' wide receivers in 2012.
With only a week before spring practices begin, the USC Trojans finally caught a new wide receivers coach for next season.
Ted Gilmore, who spent the last six years on the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ coaching staff, has been hired to coach the USC wide receiving corps next season.
Gilmore fills a spot vacated by John Morton, who left the Trojans this off-season to join former Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh in the NFL, where he’ll be the wide receivers coach for the San Francisco 49ers.
Gilmore became the front runner for the position last week after USC’s former star receiver Keary Colbert, who spent the 2011 season working with the tight ends as a graduate assistant, announced his hopes to return to the NFL next season – as a player.
Gilmore has a much stronger coaching resume than Colbert (or Trojans’ head coach Lane Kiffin, for that matter), with 16 years of college coaching experience. Since 2005, he was the wide receivers coach at Nebraska; in 2007, he also became the Huskers’ recruiting coordinator. For the past three seasons, he also held the title of assistant head coach for offense.
Prior to his tenure at Nebraska, Gilmore served as wide receivers or tight ends coach at Colorado (2003-04), Purdue (2001-02), Houston (2000), and Kansas (1999). He got his start at his alma mater, Wyoming, first as a graduate assistant – Keary Colbert, take note – with the receivers and tight ends (1994-96) before being elevated to a full-time assistant (1997-98).
During the course of his career, he’s worked Biletnikoff Award winners, All-Americans, and several NFL players, and he’ll be able to work with more talented receivers at USC. Wide receiver is arguably one of the Trojans’ deepest – and youngest – positions, as they return last year’s standout freshman Robert Woods, highly touted redshirt freshmen Kyle Prater and Markeith Ambles, and incoming recruits George Farmer and Marquise Lee. Gilmore should have plenty of opportunities to send wide receivers to the next level over the next few years.
This isn’t the first time Lane Kiffin has tried to hire Ted Gilmore. In 2007, when Kiffin was the head coach of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, he tried to lure Gilmore away from the Huskers. In hindsight, Gilmore made a smart decision to pass on that particular opportunity; Trojans fans hope his choice to join Kiffin’s staff this time around proves equally advantageous.
Spring practices at USC begin March 22 and will be closed to the public, but fans will be welcome at the spring game, st for April 23 at the Coliseum.
