Former Jet O’Brien Joins Trojan Staff

With spring practice set for later this month and one last coaching position to fill, new USC Coach Paul Hackett produced a big NFL name Tuesday, hiring Ken O’Brien as quarterback coach.

O’Brien, the longtime New York Jet quarterback who ended his career with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1993, began his coaching career last season by working with the quarterbacks at his alma mater, UC Davis, and is already on the job at USC.

“Ken O’Brien has great credentials as a player, and he brings to us an enthusiasm plus an acute knowledge of the quarterback position,” said Hackett, who also played and coached at UC Davis.

O’Brien, 37, spent two years working as a sportscaster in Sacramento before returning to football.

O’Brien played 11 seasons in the NFL, the first 10 with the Jets, and ranks second to Joe Namath on the Jets’ all-time lists with 24,386 passing yards and 124 touchdown passes.

Hackett believes one of his mistakes in his first stint as a college head coach at Pittsburgh was that he tried to do too much, coaching quarterbacks and handling the offense as well as being the overseer of the program.

At USC, O’Brien will tutor returning quarterbacks Mike Van Raaphorst, John Fox and Quincy Woods along with freshmen Carson Palmer and Jason Thomas, and Hue Jackson will work with the running backs and be the offensive coordinator.

Hackett, however, will continue to call the plays as he did as the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive coordinator.

“I want to be in the middle of it and set the tempo early, but I didn’t want to be the only guy, so when the time comes to step away and get involved more with the whole team, that’s what I’ll do,” Hackett said.

“It will give the quarterbacks their guy to go to. Particularly with the young guys coming in, we have a group of five guys who are all really young by quarterback standards.

“I’ll set the tempo teaching, Hue knows my vision of our offense so well, and Ken, though he’s just starting in coaching, can bring to us his experience, though he won’t really know our offense initially. I was looking for that chemistry.”

USC will hold its first spring practice under Hackett from March 28-April 25, and some sessions to be announced later will be open to the public.

However, there will not be a spring game.

“I want the players to feel like we’re scrimmaging and working on full-speed football as part of everyday practice, not like we’re zeroed in on one thing,” Hackett said. “This whole spring, we’ll be teaching.”