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USC Adding Ex-Assistant of 3-Time Super Bowl Winning Coach

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Lorenzo J. Reyna | Last updated Mar 3, 2025 3:06 PM ET

The USC Trojans created room to add one more assistant ahead of 2025 spring football practices. And this coach comes with ties to a three-time Super Bowl winning head coach.

USC is hiring Joe D'Orazio to become assistant running backs coach and director of football strategy, per college football insider Matt Zenitz of 247Sports Monday.

D'Orazio comes to Los Angeles with a connection to Andy Reid. He joined the Super Bowl winning head coach during his early years with the Kansas City Chiefs. D'Orazio served as senior assistant to the head coach from 2013 to 2015. That came during a time Alex Smith led the Chiefs at QB, plus before the team drafted Patrick Mahomes.

D'Orazio now gets a chance to work with Lincoln Riley and his stacked 2025 coaching staff. Riley already added past NFL representation through Rob Ryan, as the longtime NFL defensive coordinator is coaching the Trojans linebackers. Riley also hired Trovon Reed to coach cornerbacks -- who played for ex-USC head coach Pete Carroll while with the Seattle Seahawks.

D'Orazio, though, has made other rounds in the coaching profession outside of K.C. He's coming over via Baylor, where he served as quality control coach for head coach Dave Aranda.

He'll bring his own offensive expertise too. D'Orazio led the Columbia University offense in 2023 as offensive coordinator. He was previously running backs coach for the Lions from 2018-2022.

D'Orazio has a past Philadelphia Eagles background too. He worked as assistant wide receivers coach and quality control from 2016 to 2017 -- winning his own Super Bowl ring under Doug Peterson in the latter season.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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