Report: Eagles interviewing Graham Harrell for offensive coordinator job

The Eagles are interviewing USC offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Graham Harrell for Philadelphia’s offensive coordinator vacancy, according to a report from the Inquirer’s Jeff McLane.

Harrell, now 34, played quarterback at Texas Tech from 2004 through 2008. After spending 2009 with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, Harrell spent time with the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets from 2010 through 2013. He only logged four career regular season passing attempts.

Harrell transitioned into coaching in 2015 when he took a job on Mike Leach’s staff as an offensive assistant/wide receivers coach at Washington State. He then moved on to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at North Texas from 2016 through 2018 before landing the same title at USC in 2019.

Here’s an sampling of Harrell’s accomplishments from USC’s bio page:

Graham Harrell, who produced back-to-back national Top 25 offenses while the offensive coordinator at North Texas, is in his first season as USC’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He joined the USC staff in January of 2019. [...] He served the past 3 seasons (2016-18) as North Texas’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. After inheriting an offense that ranked in the nation’s bottom 25 in scoring, passing and total offense in 2015, he helped the Mean Green improve statistically in each category in 2016, including by 9.6 points per game. Then in 2017, North Texas was 19th nationally in scoring (35.5), 21st in passing (291.9) and 24th in total offense (455.1), and quarterback Mason Fine set school season records for passing yards (4,052) and TDs (31). In 2018, UNT ranked 12th in passing (306.8), 20th in total offense (460.5) and 26th in scoring (34.6), with Fine throwing for 3,793 yards and 27 touchdowns with just 5 interceptions, wide receiver Rico Bussey Jr. catching 68 passes for 1,017 yards with 12 TDs and running back DeAndre Torrey scoring 15 TDs on the ground. Fine was the 2017 and 2018 Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year, while Bussey Jr. was an All-Conference USA first teamer in 2018. North Texas also rushed for more than 150 yards a game in both 2017 and 2018. UNT won 9 games each of the Harrell’s last 2 seasons and qualified for bowl games each year that he was on staff (2016 Heart of Dallas, 2017 New Orleans, 2018 New Mexico) after having only played in one bowl the previous 11 seasons.

Harrell doesn’t have NFL coaching experience but he does fit the bill as someone who can bring fresh, new ideas to the Eagles’ offense.

BGN’s Benjamin Solak, noted college football savant, is a fan of Harrell:

And here’s what our friends over at Conquest Chronicle had to say when they wrote about Harrell signing a contract extension with USC back in December:

Harrell has been the breath of fresh air that the Trojans desperately needed on offense last season. His air raid scheme has helped USC utilize some explosive talent on that side of that ball and improved the offense moving forward. Under Harrell, USC was No. 14 in the nation in total offense and saw their point per game average jump to 33.1 per game.

This would be an intriguing hire for the Eagles.