Football
- Title:
- Senior Offensive Analyst
- Email:
- jmcdonel@usc.edu
A veteran with over 35 years of experience in college football, John McDonell enters his first season with the Trojans as a senior offensive analyst in 2025.
McDonell joined the USC staff from LSU where he served in the same role for the last two years. Prior to his time at LSU, he spent 4 years in the Canadian Football League where he served as offensive line coach for Edmonton (2020-21) and Ottawa (2018-19), who went to the Grey Cup in 2018. He has 29 years of experience coaching the offensive line at the NCAA Division I level including 12 bowl appearances.
Prior to his move to the CFL, McDonell served as a senior analyst and tight ends coach at Georgia State from 2016-17. He coached the offensive line at Tulane from 2012-15. In 2011, he was the offensive line coach at Idaho. Before Idaho, McDonell spent the 2010 season in the same capacity at the University of Memphis and he also served for one season in the same role at Bowling Green State University (2009), where he helped the Falcons to the Humanitarian Bowl.
Before Bowling Green, McDonell’s previous coaching stops included Purdue (2006-08) where he helped them to the Champs Bowl in 2006 and the Motor City Bowl in 2007 and also played an instrumental role in Dustin Keller’s first-round selection (30th overall) in the 2008 NFL Draft.
McDonnell made two stops at Stanford (2001, 2005) where he was a member of their Seattle Bowl appearance in 2001 and coached Eric Heitmann to First Team All-America honors that same season.
He was on the coaching staff at Notre Dame (2002-2004) and appeared in the Gator Bowl (2002) and Insight Bowl (2004). Under his tutelage, center Jeff Faine was a finalist for the Rimington Trophy and was a first-round draft pick (21st overall) by the Cleveland Browns in the 2003 NFL Draft.
His longest coaching stint (1989-2000) was a 12-year tenure on head coach Mike Price’s staff at Washington State, where he was a part of the coaching staff that led the Cougars to three bowl appearances, including the 1992 Copper Bowl, 1994 Alamo Bowl and 1997 Rose Bowl. He served as the team’s offensive coordinator from 1994-2000.
He began his career at Weber State (1984-88) where he helped the program to a banner season in 1987 with a Big Sky Conference championship and a No. 10 national ranking in the final Division I-AA poll.
McDonell attended Carroll College in Montana, where he was an NAIA All-American his senior year after having been an All-Frontier Conference selection three times. He was inducted into the Carroll College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994.
A native of Spokane, Wash., McDonell earned his bachelor’s degree in Social Science from Carroll College in 1981. He and his wife, Mindy have a son (Michael) and a daughter (Megan).
