TAMPA, FL. – When Jeff Scott was looking for a new offensive coordinator, he wanted somebody who could maintain much of the structure that former coordinator, Charlie Weis, Jr., put in place.
In his seven years as a coordinator, Travis Trickett ran systems and schemes similar to what has been installed at USF. That appealed to Scott.
“I wanted to be sure to bring in somebody who had the same beliefs in the offensive system and how we do things on offense,” said Scott during a pre-spring press conference Thursday, Trickett’s first appearance with the media since being hired in mid-January. “Offensively, we are not going to throw away all the work that we put in. We will keep a lot of the terminology the same and, obviously, he will be able to add his flavor to it. Overall, I expect to see a better version of what we have had.”jeff scott
Trickett, who Scott said has been outstanding in teaching and developing quarterbacks, was the offensive coordinator at Samford (2012-15), FAU (2016-17), and Georgia State (2018). He spent the past three years at West Virginia, his alma mater, working with inside receivers and tight ends under Neal Brown.
At USF, Trickett is again running an offense and in a program he feels has a very strong bond among players and coaches along with a genuine sense of excitement in the locker room.
“What coach Scott has done here, how he is off the field as a coach, as a mentor to his players and how he runs a program is the environment I wanted to be in,” he said. “I wasn’t going to leave where I was to go to a situation that wasn’t going to be the same, or better, than where I was.”
Trickett is taking over an offense that averaged 351 yards per game last season to rank 102nd nationally. While not all on them by any means, Bulls quarterbacks threw only six touchdown passes, next-to-last among 130 FBS teams.
In learning the strengths and weaknesses of each player, Trickett will identify who needs to have the ball in their hands in order for his offense to be efficient and ultimately post numbers that are far more productive than those noted above.
“Whoever your best players are, have them do what they do best,” said the son of longtime offensive line coach, Rick Trickett, who is currently at Jacksonville State. “Give them the ball in space if they are space players. If they are road graders, get them downhill. If guys are fast on the perimeter, get them on the perimeter. Let your players play. It sounds simple, but if you can equip your kids to be able to go out there and know what to do and have a plan and not think, then that is when they are (at their best).”
When asked which coaches have had the most influence during his career, Trickett mentioned the late Pat Sullivan, Jimbo Fisher and Brown. He paused to control his emotions when talking about Sullivan.
“One of the greatest human beings of all time,” he said of the 1971 Heisman winner at Auburn, NFL quarterback and college coach whose mentorship of young men was widely praised throughout the game.
Sullivan gave Trickett, then 26, his first opportunity as an offensive coordinator at Samford in 2012. Prior to that, he worked as a graduate assistant at Florida State for three years, two of which were under Fisher, who was the Seminoles’ OC. In his three years in Morgantown, Trickett was extremely impressed with how Brown “worked with people” and the relationship part of the coaching equation.
Trickett, whose brother, Clint, was a quarterback at Florida State and West Virginia and is currently an assistant at Marshall, is eager to take all that he has absorbed and apply it at USF.
“What I am most excited about this spring is being process-oriented, detail-oriented, and getting the players out there and seeing what they can do,” he said.
It all starts in earnest Tuesday at 9 a.m. when the curtain rises on spring drills.
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