Bryan McClendon to South Carolina

Bryan McClendon‘s last game at Georgia will be the TaxSlayer Bowl as he will join Will Muschamp at South Carolina as a co-offensive coordinator.

According to Bleacher Report’s Barrett Sallee, the Georgia Bulldogs’ interim head coach Bryan McClendon will leave the program for a co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers coaching position with SEC East rival South Carolina. Sallee also reports that McClendon will coach in the TaxSlayer Bowl before joining Will Muschamp’s staff in Columbia.

This is hire by the University of South Carolina is nearly as shocking as was Will Muschamp’s hiring as the man to replace its greatest football coach in the Head Ball Coach Steve Spurrier.

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Like Muschamp, McClendon is a graduate of the University of Georgia and will serve as a major recruiter for the Gamecocks. This is undoubtedly a tough blow for the Dawgs.

Bryan McClendon seemed like he would either stay at Georgia in his same role as wide receivers coach under new offensive coordinator Jim Chaney or follow former UGA head coach Mark Richt to the Miami Hurricanes.

I really didn’t expect McClendon to go coach and recruit for a major division rival. Now with McClendon leaving the UGA program, this means that new Georgia head coach Kirby Smart will have an entirely new offensive staff. He has already hired Chaney as his offensive coordinator and brought in offensive line guru Sam Pittman on offense.

On the defensive side of the ball, Smart brought with him from Tuscaloosa defensive specialist Glenn Schumann and ended up keep defensive line Coach Tracy Rocker and outside linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer as part of the 2016 UGA defensive staff.

Now that Bryan McClendon will work for the University of South Carolina, does this mean that Kirby Smart could actually pursue former UGA wideout and two-time Super Bowl champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers Hines Ward as his new wide receivers coach? Ward did say days after Smart’s hiring that he would love to get back into coaching. Both played together at UGA in the mid-1990s.

Next: Kirby Smart retains Rocker, Sherrer; Brown to The U

Losing a versatile coach and a fantastic recruiter in Bryan McClendon to the University of South Carolina is arguably the worst loss UGA experience from the coaching staff since Richt’s dismissal. McClendon will now have to recruit against the Red and Black in favor of Garnet. This is a big loss for the UGA program in having Bryan McClendon go to South Carolina.