USC has added Keith Dawley to its coaching staff for the 2024-2025 season as an assistant coach, head coach Lea Maurer announced on Monday.
“We are excited to have Keith joining the USC family. He has experience that will certainly elevate our team in every area, but we are most excited about how he will impact the performances of our student-athletes,” said USC head coach Lea Maurer. “Keith’s knowledge and passion is only out-shined by his inspiring work ethic.”
Dawley most recently spent six years at SMU, helping the men’s team to four straight conference championships. The SMU men’s staff won coaching staff of the year honors from 2021-2024. This past season, SMU had a historic 18th place finish at NCAAs, marking the team’s highest finish since 2008.
Dawley was the program’s recruiting coordinator since his arrival and also served as interim head coach in 2019.
Before his time at SMU, Dawley was the associate head coach and interim head coach of TCU for one season. He primarily coached the distance group but also spent time as an assistant to the sprint group. Dawley spent a year as an assistant coach at Miami-OH from 2016-2017 before arriving at TCU.
Dawley also has spent time at the University of Virginia as he was a volunteer assistant with the Hoos from 2015-2016. He also had another stint as an interim head coach as he was the interim head coach of Houston in 2014-2015. Dawley began his coaching career at East Carolina University (ECU), spending time as an assistant coach from 2009-2013. The program broke 15 school records during that time span.
Dawley began his collegiate student-athlete career at Indiana before transferring to South Carolina. He graduated from South Carolina with a bachelor’s in Sport and Entertainment Management in 2009.
Dawley helps fill the USC roster that had an opening after Peter Richardson left the program to become the associate head coach of Arizona.
USC will enter its first season as a member of the Big Ten this year. This past season, the women finished 8th and the men finished 22nd at NCAAs.
Huge addition to the USC coaching staff. USC is lucky to have him!