Reports: USF Football to hire West Virginia TE/Inside WR coach Travis Trickett as OC/QB coach

According to Mike Casazza of EerSports247, West Virginia tight end/inside receivers coach Travis Trickett is leaving Morgantown, WV, to become the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for USF football. The move comes a little over a week after it was announced that Charlie Weis Jr would be reuniting with Lane Kiffin and heading to Ole Miss for the same position.

Travis Trickett, a Hattisburg, MS, native, is the brother of former West Virginia standout quarterback Clint Trickett and the son of Rick Trickett, who had been Jimbo Fisher’s right hand man and offensive line coach at Florida State. Travis got into coaching initially back in 2003, when he was a student assistant for WVU under his father Rick.

From 2003 to 2007, Travis worked with record-setting QB and former USF running backs coach Pat White. In 2007, he made the move to Alabama to work as an offensive graduate assistant under Nick Saban, where he worked with John Parker Wilson and Greg McElroy at QB. Following a season at Alabama, he rejoined his father at Florida State from 2008 to 2010. During those three seasons, he worked under Bobby Bowden and Jimbo Fisher to help mentor Christian Ponder and E.J. Manuel.

Trickett got his first full time coaching job with Samford, where he became the slot receiver and tight ends coach in 2011. After one season, he was promoted to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Bulldogs in 2013 where he helped guide Andy Summerlin to SoCon Player of the Year. That season, the Bulldogs averaged 30.1 points per game and Summerlin threw for 3,640 yards and 26 touchdowns as the team claimed a Co-Southern Conference Championship.

After five straight winning seasons, a Southern Conference Championship, FCS playoff berth, and 23 all-conference selections under his guidance at Samford, Trickett accepted the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach position at Florida Atlantic in 2016. During his lone season in Boca, his offensive unit set the FAU season record for rushing yards, yards per carry, and rushing touchdowns. The wide receivers for Florida Atlantic produced seven 100-yard efforts in 2016, USF was only able to manage three such efforts in 2021.

Unfortunately for Trickett, he received the ‘Kerwin Bell’ treatment while trying to turn the corner for FAU and was not retained after head coach Charlie Patridge was relieved of his duties in lieu of Lane Kiffin. He then took the offensive coordinator and QB coach position at upstart Georgia State, who was competing in only their fourth season at FBS.

Under Trickett’s guidance, he was able to help guide the Panthers to a then school-record seven wins and first winning season at the FBS level. His QB in 2017 was Conner Manning, who earned All-Sun Belt honors after averaging 262.2 yards per game and 14 touchdowns. He lead the Sun Belt with a 64.3 completion percentage.

In 2019, Trickett was announced as the final member of Neal Brown’s coaching staff to re-join the Mountaineers as the tight ends and inside receiver’s coach. During his time as a position coach in Morgantown, Trickett helped mentor Winston Wright Jr. who is a two-time all-Big 12 selection with 129 catches, 1,338 yards, and seven TDs in three season.

Arguably, Trickett’s biggest accomplishment at West Virginia was climbing the ranks as a recruiter, ending up at No. 7 in the Big 12 recruiting rankings according to 247 sports. He joined Iowa State’s Tyson Veidt as the only non-Texas/Oklahoma coordinator to be honored.

His emergence as a recruiter can be credited towards his presence in south Florida high schools in the Miami/Dade/Broward area, where in the 2022 cycle he was able to land four-star CB Jacolby Spells from American Heritage, three-star LB Travious Lathan from Gulliver Prep, and three-star TE (and USF target) De’Carlo Donaldson, also from Gulliver. (Let me tell ya folks, convincing kids to leave sunny and beautiful south Florida for cold and bitter Morgantown, West Virginia is no easy task.)

Now, let’s check in on our fellow SB Nation site that covers West Virginia for comments: