Football World Reacts To The Jeff Fisher Speculation

Jeff Fisher is among the more notable USC graduates in the coaching world. He played for the Trojans from 1977-80 before a brief NFL career, and eventually a lengthy tenure as a coach.

The Trojans are once again looking for a new head coach, after firing Clay Helton early this season. USC, perhaps more than any other major program, has kept things in the family since Pete Carroll's departure in 2009.

Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian were both Carroll offensive coordinators before becoming USC head coaches. Helton was interim head coach before landing the full-time job, and worked for both of his predecessors. Fisher doesn't come from Carroll's tree, but he'd be another fairly insular hire in many ways. According to former Trojans quarterback Carson Palmer, he's "in the mix" right now.

He also has no real college coaching experience. That isn't always a deal-breaker, but for one of the biggest jobs in college football, it seems like it would be. He's also something of an also-ran in the coaching profession overall, going 31-45-1 in his last coaching stop with the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams. Plenty of jokes about how he always seemed to end up at 7-9 are flying around on Twitter right now, amid reports that he's up for the job at his alma mater.

Jeff Fisher is, by most accounts, a nice guy, and it seems like he still wants to coach. He's far from the most exciting candidate for the USC job, especially with some of the names that have come up, like Luke Fickell and and Matt Campbell from the college ranks.

We'll see if USC actually heads in this direction, or if the Trojans target one of the hot candidates from the college ranks, as most fans seem to prefer.