Tony Dungy says USC can cross his name off its coaching search list.
Dungy, the former Buccaneers and Colts head coach, said on the Dan Patrick Show that USC put out feelers to see if he would have any interest in filling their coaching vacancy after the Trojans fired Lane Kiffin.
“Representatives of the organization have called -- your people called my people, just to see if you’re interested,” Dungy said.
Asked what his answer was, Dungy was blunt: “Not interested.”
Dungy said he loved his time as the head coach of the Colts, but he knew when it was time to walk away from coaching, and he’s not looking to get back into it.
“I had the best job in football working for Jim Irsay and coaching Peyton Manning, and there was a time when I was just done,” Dungy said.
Dungy also said that even if he were looking to get back into coaching, he doesn’t think he’d be the right person for the USC job because he doesn’t have any college coaching experience, and the closest he has been to a college program is watching his son play at Oregon.
“I don’t know anything about college football, other than seeing it through my son’s eyes,” he said. “They need to get a great college coach, in my opinion.”
Dungy mentioned Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, Boise State coach Chris Petersen and Colts (and former Stanford) offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton as coaches he believes USC should consider. (Dungy added that he doesn’t know if those coaches are interested, and he said Sumlin in particular might not view USC as a better job than the one he has now.)
The mere fact that USC expressed some interest in Dungy, however, suggests that the Trojans may want to hire someone with an NFL background, just as they did when they hired Kiffin, Pete Carroll before that and Paul Hackett before that. It wouldn’t be at all surprising to see USC hire from the professional ranks. But Dungy won’t be their man.