Luke Huard - Football Coach

Photo by: John McGillen

Luke Huard

Title:
Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks Coach
Email:
football@usc.edu
Phone:
(213) 740-4204

Luke Huard, who comes from a family of outstanding quarterbacks, enters his fourth season at USC. After transitioning from inside receivers to quarterbacks coach for the 2024 season, Huard added on offensive coordinator duties entering 2025.

In 2024, Huard mentored the Trojan quarterbacks. Offensively, the Trojans finished the season ranked in the national Top 25 in passing offense (10, 291.9), third down conversion percentage (25, 0.448), total offense (23, 437.2) and first downs offense (24, 303). QB Miller Moss went 233-of-362 (.644) for 2,555 yards and 18 TDs through 9 games. After USC’s 27-20 victory over LSU to open the 2024 campaign, Moss was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. He also earned placement on Davey O’Brien Great 8 List twice throughout the season. QB Jayden Maiava took over the starting role for the final 4 games of the season. He went 101-of-169 (.598) for 1,201 yards and 11 TDs through 7 games. The Trojans concluded the season with a 35-31 victory over Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl. The win marked the biggest comeback victory in Las Vegas Bowl history. Additionally, it was the largest deficit that USC has ever overcome in a bowl game win, with the previous being a 15-point deficit against Penn State in the 2017 Rose Bowl. On National Signing Day, Huard signed California’s No. 1 quarterback, five-star Husan Longstreet.

In 2023, Huard coached a group of inside wide receivers that were a part of an offense that was ranked No. 3 in the nation in scoring offense (41.8) and No. 10 in the nation in total offense (467.6). He tutored wide receiver Tahj Washington who was USC’s most reliable member of the receiving corps as well as an outstanding special teams player. Washington recorded his first-ever 1,000 yard season posting 1,062 yards on the year and ranked No. 23 nationally in receiving yards. He also ranked first in the Pac-12 Conference in yards per reception (18.00). Huard also coached star freshman wide out and electric returner, Zachariah Branch.  Branch was honored as a First Team All-American as a returner (USC’s first-ever true freshman First Team All-American) and earned the Jet Award as the nation's most outstanding return specialist. USC was victorious over No. 16 Louisville in the Holiday Bowl to end the season.

He joined the USC staff in February of 2022 as an offensive analyst.  In March, he took over as interim inside wide receivers coach while Dave Nichol was away from the program due to his health. He became the full time position coach in the spring of 2022.

In 2022, Huard coached a group of high-level inside receivers who contributed to a recorded-setting season for the Trojan offense. USC played in the Cotton Bowl to conclude the 2022 season.

He spent the previous 3 seasons (2019-21) as an offensive analyst at Texas A&M.  The Aggies earned berths in the 2019 Texas Bowl, 2021 Orange Bowl and 2021 Gator Bowl.

Before that, he was the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Sacramento State for 2 seasons (2017-18).  The Hornets averaged 486.0 total yards and 37.6 points (fifth nationally) in 2017 as quarterback Kevin Thomson set several school season records, and then averaged 402.8 total yards in 2018.

He was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Georgia State for 4 seasons (2013-16).  GSU quarterbacks Ronnie Bell and Nick Arbuckle set numerous school records, including Arbuckle’s Sun Belt records in 2015 for passing yards (4,368) and total offense (4,273).  Arbuckle, who ranked sixth nationally in passing yards per game in 2015, was the Sun Belt’s Student-Athlete of the Year that season.  Nine Georgia State pass catchers earned All-Sun Belt honors during Huard’s tenure.  The Panthers played in the 2015 and 2017 Cure Bowl.

He was at Illinois State for 4 seasons (2009-12), the first as the quarterbacks coach and then adding the offensive coordinator duties the next 3 years.  In 2012, the Redbirds led the Missouri Valley Football Conference in passing and total offense while scoring more than 30 points per game, and they advanced to the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs.  Quarterback Matt Brown was a 3-time All-Conference selection, and was the 2009 MVFC Newcomer of the Year and 2012 MVFC Offensive Player of the Year.

Huard was a graduate assistant at Washington in 2007 and 2008, working with the quarterbacks.  Quarterback Jake Locker was the Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year in 2007 (he went on to be an NFL first round pick).

Huard started his coaching career in 2002 as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Washington High in Tacoma (Wash.).

He then spent 4 years (2003-06) as the head coach at Interlake High in Bellevue (Wash.).  In 2004, he led the team to its first winning season in 10 years.  That same year, he also was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Eastside Hawks, a semi-pro team that went 10-0 in 2004 and won the Northwest Football League title.

After being named Washington’s 1997 Gatorade Player of the Year as a quarterback at Puyallup High, he played at North Carolina for 3 seasons (1998-2000) before a shoulder injury ended his career.  He started 4 games as a redshirt freshman in 1999.

He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from North Carolina in 2002.

His brothers, Damon and Brock, were quarterbacks at Washington and in the NFL.  Damon played at Washington (1991-95), including on UW’s 1991 national champions, and then with the Miami Dolphins (1997-2000), New England Patriots (2001-2003, including on the Super Bowl XXXVI and XXXVIII champs), and Kansas City Chiefs (2004-08), and now is director of community and external relations and special advisor to the athletic director at Washington as well as an analyst on Husky football radio broadcasts.  Brock played at Washington (1995-98), then with the Seattle Seahawks (1999-2001, 2004) and Indianapolis Colts (2002-03) and now is a college football analyst for FOX Sports and a sports radio host in Seattle.  His father, Mike, was inducted into the Washington State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Pacific Northwest Football Hall of Fame in 2011 after 17 seasons as the head coach at Puyallup High, winning the state title in 1987.  His nephew, Sam, is a quarterback at USC, while his niece, Haley, is a on Montana’s basketball team.  His sister-in-law, Molly, played basketball at Washington (1995-99).

He and his wife, Dolly, have 2 daughters.