South Florida has fired head coach and former Clemson co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott, the school announced Sunday afternoon.
Scott, whose USF team lost 54-28 at Temple on Saturday, finished 4-26 in three seasons with the Bulls and just 1-26 against FBS opponents.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said he heard about Scott’s firing “literally 30 seconds” before starting his regularly-scheduled Sunday night teleconference with reporters.
“I’ll definitely reach out to Jeff and just know he gave it everything he could down there and it just didn’t apparently work out,” Swinney said. “But he’s a great coach and a great person. He’s got a great family and he’s somebody I love dearly. I know he’ll grow from it.”
USF, which competes in the American Athletic Conference, hired Scott in December 2019 after he rose to prominence as one of the nation’s top offensive coordinators with Clemson.
South Florida was 1-8 this year under Scott, who’d received a contract extension earlier this season.
“When Jeff came to Tampa in December of 2019, we had high expectations for where he could take our football program,” USF director of athletics Michael Kelly said in a statement Sunday. “While he did so many things right, including rebuilding our culture, pushing forward our Indoor Performance Facility, and engaging our community, the on-the-field results fell well below our standards. He is a tremendous person and class individual and we wish him, Sara, Savannah and Hunter all the best in the future.”
USF also fired Bob Shoop, Scott’s defensive coordinator and safeties coach, on Sunday night. In Scott’s absence, special teams coordinator Daniel Da Prato will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the 2022 season.
Scott had previously worked as Clemson’s co-offensive coordinator since 2015 and on his alma mater’s staff since 2008. Scott helped lead the Tigers to five straight College Football Playoff appearances, four national championship game appearances and two national championships in 2016 and 2018.
Scott was the fourth former Clemson coordinator from coach Dabo Swinney’s staff to leave for a head coaching job, joining Chad Morris (SMU in 2014), Tony Elliott (Virginia in 2021) and Brent Venables (Oklahoma in 2021).
Morris, like Scott, was fired from his second head coaching job at Arkansas in 2019. As noted by CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah, those four former Clemson coordinators are also a combined 30-76 as head coaches.
This story was originally published November 06, 2022 6:26 PM.
