USC assistants ink contract extensions


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Just a few days after extending head coach Clay Helton’s  contract to stay through the 2023 season, the football team has announced that it will do the same for offensive and defensive coordinators Tee Martin and Clancy Pendergast.

Under defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast. Photo by Emily Smith | Daily Trojan

“Consistency and stability are so important in improving your program every year,” Helton said in a statement on Monday. “Having both back will help us to our goal of having national championship-caliber seasons.”

Coaching in their respective positions for the past two seasons, Martin and Pendergast have helped lead USC to consecutive New Year’s Six bowl appearances with trips to the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl.

Martin, a 1998 national championship-winning quarterback with Tennessee, began his tenure with the team in 2012 as a wide receivers coach. In his time at USC, he helped develop former Trojans and current NFL stars Marqise Lee, Robert Woods and Nelson Agholor. Over the past two seasons, Martin has led the USC offense to consecutive decades-long highs in total yards per game with 477.1 yards in 2016 and 481.1 in 2017.

Martin’s name came up in a few head-coaching rumors this off-season, including at his alma mater of Tennessee. The Volunteers ended up settling on Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt after an extended head-coaching search. 

Defensively, Pendergast has re-energized the Trojans. In 2017 USC tied all other FBS programs at the top with 46 sacks led by senior Uchenna Nwosu, who tallied 9.5 sacks on the season. After being defensive coordinator for USC for the 2013 season, Pendergast left for two years to serve as the linebackers coach for the San Francisco 49ers. Since he returned for the 2016 season, USC has been one of the strongest defensive units in the Pac-12.

Off the field, both Pendergast and Martin have been instrumental in keeping USC atop the college football recruiting world. Both of the recruiting classes that these coaches have been a part of shaping, 2017 and 2018, have been ranked among the top five in the nation according to 247sports.com.

This season, 247 ranked Tee Martin as the second best recruiter in the Pac-12 behind USC linebackers coach Johnny Nansen.