WVU Coach Trickett Strong Candidate for South Florida OC Role

247Sports‘ Chris Hummer announced today that WVU Football’s tight ends and inside receivers coach Travis Trickett is on the short-list for the University of South Florida’s offensive coordinator position.

West Virginia TEs/Inside WRs coach Travis Trickett is a strong candidate for South Florida's open offensive coordinator role, a source tells @247Sports. @CFBcarousel

— Chris Hummer (@chris_hummer) January 6, 2022

Trickett, who hasn’t alluded to tension between he and the WVU coaching staff but has interviewed with the Bulls, has a handful of strong ties to the University of South Florida’s current coaching staff. Although USF has only been playing varsity football since 1997, the roster of coaches bodes well for Trickett’s entrance. Head coach Jeff Scott came to the Bulls from a tenure at Clemson working as the co-OC. Key pieces of the Bulls’ offensive and defensive coaching presences came with him when he was hired in 2019, including recently-departed offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr.

Here’s where the small world connections begin. When Trickett was the OC at Florida Atlantic University in 2016 under head coach Charlie Partridge, he spent a season coaching alongside Weis Jr, who was the tight ends coach at the time. When Weis Jr. left the program in lieu of the Atlanta Falcons’ offensive analyst position, newly-appointed FAU head coach Lane Kiffin filled his spot with Trickett’s younger brother, and former WVU quarterback, Clint. Clint worked on the Kiffin era FAU staff as a TE coach and offensive coordinator until 2020. Weis Jr.’s departure from USF in Dec. 2021 was in order to reunite with Kiffin as Ole Miss’ OC for 2022.

If that wasn’t enough of a football connection, Trickett would be the second Brown era assistant to leave the Mountaineers for the Bulls. Former WVU coach Xavier Dye is currently overseeing the USF tight ends. Dye came to Tampa immediately following WVU head coach Neal Brown’s 2019 season, during which he was the wide receivers coach. The Trickett and Dye connection spent a season together that produced 2,984 yards passing, 20.58 points per game, and a 5-7 record.