Candidate profile: Doug Belk
Missouri is searching for its fourth defensive coordinator in five years after Blake Baker decided to take the same job in Baton Rouge for LSU.
You can find out full hot board here. In the meantime, we will also bring you a more in-depth look at each candidate by profiling one every day during the search.
Current position: USC defensive backs coach
Coaching experience: 13 years (two as defensive coordinator)
Age: 36
Salary: Unknown (made $1 million in 2023)
Buyout: N/A
Belk played college ball from 2007-10 at Carson-Newman in Tennessee and started coaching in 2011 for his hometown school, Valdosta State, as a defensive assistant and special teams coach.
Then, for the next two years, he coached defensive backs for the Blazers.
He joined Nick Saban's staff at Alabama in 2014 and remained through the 2016 season as a graduate assistant, earning a national championship in 2015 along the way.
From there, he joined West Virginia for the 2017-18 seasons as the cornerbacks coach under Dana Holgorsen.
After Belk's stint in Morgantown with the Mountaineers, he followed Holgorsen to Houston in 2019 and became the team's co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach.
In 2018, the Cougars had the nation's fourth-worst defense allowing 496.8 total yards per game, 37.2 points per game (119th), 275.5 passing yards per game (124th) and 221.3 rushing yards per game (116th).
Despite the poor defense, Houston still managed to go 8-5.
In Belk's first season, he slightly improved the team's defense, helping the Cougars improve in three of the four major defensive categories.
In 2020, the Cougars only played eight games due to COVID-19 but the defense made massive improvements across the board.
Belk had his best season of his Houston tenure in 2021 with the Cougars going 12-2 behind the nation's sixth-ranked defense.
Houston was top 20 in all four major categories and it was the third straight season of substantial improvement for the defense.
It was this season that Belk became the sole defensive coordinator.
In 2022, the defense began to trend in the opposite direction, going from one of the nation's elite defenses to one of the worst.
Houston experienced more regression in Belk's final season this past fall and went 4-8.
| Years (record) | PPG allowed (FBS Rank) | Total yards per game allowed (rank) | Passing yards allowed per game (rank) | Rushing yards allowed per game (rank) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2019 (4-8) |
34.0 (113) |
467.5 (118) |
288.4 (124) |
179.1 (84) |
|
2020 (3-5) |
32.0 (81) |
398.5 (55) |
231.0 (62) |
167.5 (66) |
|
2021 (12-2) |
20.4 (19) |
301.5 (6) |
194.0 (19) |
107.5 (10) |
|
2022 (8-5) |
23.4 (113) |
421.8 (105) |
278.6 (122) |
143.2 (56) |
|
2023 (4-8) |
31.5 (108) |
423.9 (115) |
255.3 (117) |
168.6 (101) |
|
Average |
28.26 |
402.64 |
249.46 |
153.18 |
Belk is an up-and-coming assistant coach in college football. He's coached around the country, has been a part of multiple Power 5 programs and has defensive coordinating experience.
He's proven that he can dramatically improve a defense from year to year and one has to think with more talent he may be able to sustain success longer.
He just took the defensive backs job at USC in December and doesn't have a direct link to Eli Drinkwitz, so it’s more of an outside shot that he comes to Columbia, but a chance to be a defensive coordinator in the SEC may appeal to him.
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