Former Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith was not interviewed by USC to discuss its head-coaching vacancy, his agent said Monday.
Matt Smith, the son of and agent for the 2005 NFL Coach of the Year, took to Twitter to reject the report from Mike Mulligan of "The Mully and Hanley Show" that an interview took place last week.
Smith went 81-63 in nine seasons with the Bears, winning three NFC North divisional titles, but he was fired at the end of the 2012 season.
Smith is just the latest name from the NFL to be floated for USC, but unlike alums Jack Del Rio and Jeff Fisher, would actually bring a resume with college coaching experience.
(There was also the whole 'Tony Dungy contacted by an imposter' mess, but the less said about that, the better.)
Smith was an assistant at Ohio State, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arizona State, Wisconsin and Tulsa before jumping to the professional ranks in 1996 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
However, the Trojans have seen what former Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin's patented Tampa 2 defense -- the system that Smith used to take the Bears to Super Bowl XLI -- can and cannot do on Saturdays, to great success under Pete Carroll from 2001-09 and with lesser returns under Kiffin himself for three seasons.
Follow Dan Greenspan on Twitter @DanGreenspan.
