As USC inches closer toward finalizing its football staff for a critical 2026 campaign, Lincoln Riley has hired a new special teams coordinator, while one of his most respected defensive assistants won’t return next season.

Nebraska special teams coach Mike Ekeler is joining the Trojans’ football staff for the 2026 season, a person familiar with the hire but not authorized to speak publicly told The Times.

On the same day Ekeler’s hire was finalized, the decision was made to move on from secondary coach Doug Belk, a person familiar with the hire told The Times, leading the Trojans one step closer to settling on a direction for the defense in 2026.

A former defensive coordinator at Houston, Belk had spent the last two seasons leading USC’s secondary under defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn. He focused largely on coaching safeties in 2025, as the Trojans’ pass defense improved, at least on paper, rising from 98th in passing yards allowed to 47th. He also worked closely with safety Bishop Fitzgerald, who was named a consensus All-American after a 51-tackle, five-interception season.

Belk’s departure comes just as USC’s defensive coordinator search enters its final, critical stage. Longtime Texas Christian coach Gary Patterson is a serious candidate for the job, but no deal has been finalized, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.

Whomever USC hires at defensive coordinator, the hope had been to keep most of its previous defensive staff intact. Cornerbacks coach Trovon Reed is expected to return, while defensive line coach Eric Henderson has been rumored as a possible candidate for Georgia Tech’s defensive coordinator vacancy.

Ekeler spent just one season in Lincoln but managed to transform many of the Huskers’ special teams operations. Nebraska went from 92nd in kickoff coverage in 2024 to 12th in 2025. The punt coverage (114th to 14th), kickoff return (100th to 13th) and punt return teams (111th to 17th) also experienced similarly significant leaps.

Now he’ll take the reins of the Trojans’ special teams, which were lacking in many of those areas last season. What that means for Ryan Dougherty, who spent the last two years as special teams coordinator, is still unclear. It’s possible he could remain on staff in a new role. Under Dougherty last season, USC ranked 132nd in punt coverage, albeit with a limited sample size, 129th in kickoff coverage — giving up 26.3 yards per return — and 123rd in kickoff returns.

USC was stellar in the kicking game, as former walk-on Ryon Sayeri converted a school-record 21 field goals. Sayeri will return in 2026, while USC has added a new punter, Lachlan Carrigan, who spent last season at Memphis.

Ekeler has previously worked at USC, coaching linebackers under Lane Kiffin in 2013. The Trojans ranked in the top 20 in run defense that season under Ekeler. But Kiffin was fired five games into the year and Ekeler didn’t return under new coach Steve Sarkisian.

Ekeler took on coaching special teams after that upon arriving at Georgia in 2014 and bouncd back and forth from there between being a special teams coordinator and coaching on the defensive end. Since 2019, Ekeler has primarily coached special teams, with stops at Kansas, North Texas and Tennessee before landing at Nebraska.

With Ekeler’s hire and Belk’s exit on Tuesday, the next step is to find a defensive coordinator. That move should be made in the coming days.