Two days after USC defensive graduate assistant Bryson Allen-Williams left the Trojans to take a job at Georgia, USC is in the process of hiring his replacement.
A.J. Howard is expected to become USC’s next assistant linebackers coach, according to Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports. Howard played college football at Appalachian State as a safety, and he coached at his alma mater as an outside linebackers coach for the last two seasons.
Once his NFL career ended, Howard worked as a graduate assistant at Louisville and with the New England Patriots as a scout before coaching at App State. Howard is the fourth assistant coach USC has added this offseason joining linebackers coach Rob Ryan, inside receivers and tight end coach Chad Savage and cornerbacks coach Trovon Reed. USC has also overhauled its personnel department in the last month.
BECOME A USCFOOTBALL.COM VIP MEMBER TODAY! Right now you can subscribe for 30% off the regular annual membership price! Don’t miss an opportunity to get the best USC Trojan athletics coverage on the planet at a big discount! Click this link to go to our signup page and once you are in, that is 365 days of access to all of our VIP content, the Peristyle premium message board (the oldest and busiest Trojan football message board there is), our weekly insider War Room features and lots more!
Howard will work with an inexperienced linebacker room at USC. Outside of Eric Gentry, every other returning linebacker played sparingly last season for the Trojans.
Gentry and Desman Stephens are the logical replacements for departing starters Easton Mascarenas-Arnold and Mason Cobb next fall, but USC will likely look to add another linebacker in the spring transfer window. Gentry was USC’s best defensive player in 2024 when he was healthy, but he had to redshirt due to suffering multiple early-season concussions. As a true freshman, Stephens played 105 defensive snaps across nine games.
Rising second-year freshmen linebackers Elijah Newby and Jadyn Walker as well as fourth-year junior Garrison Madden will also be back in 2025. The trio combined for 10 defensive snaps this season. The Trojans will bring in four-star true freshman Matai Tagoa’i and three-star true freshman AJ Tuitele from the high school ranks too.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
