A one-year contract for Rod Wilson to be South Carolina’s linebackers coach was passed by the university’s board of trustees on Friday afternoon. Wilson becomes the fourth new hire to the Gamecocks on-field coaching staff this offseason.

A former Gamecocks linebacker himself, Wilson will earn an annual salary of $275,000 plus incentives and his contract expires on May 31, 2021.

The new Gamecocks assistant coach is returning to Columbia after helping coach the Kansas City Chiefs to a Super Bowl championship earlier this month. Prior to being a special teams assistant in the NFL, Wilson coached linebackers for four seasons at Charleston Southern from 2013-16.

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Before Wilson returned to the NFL as a coach, he briefly worked as linebackers coach at Furman. He left that position to take the job in Kansas City.

A native of Cross, S.C., Wilson was a four-sport athlete at Cross High School and was named Class 1A state offensive player of the year. He was a finalist for Mr. Football in South Carolina and served as a team captain in the 1999 Shrine Bowl. He went on to have a versatile career on the football field with the Gamecocks, playing quarterback, wide receiver, spur, safety and linebacker over five years. He was a team captain his redshirt senior year in 2004 and led the defense in tackles while earning All-SEC and SEC Academic Honor Roll accolades.

A seventh-round draft pick in 2005 by the Chicago Bears, Wilson played for two more teams in the NFL before he retired as a Bear in 2010. He played in 51 games, 43 of which were in Chicago.

Wilson is now the 10th assistant coach on South Carolina's staff. He’s filling a spot that was previously held by Coleman Hutzler, who’s now the co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach at Texas. Kyle Krantz is now the special teams coordinator at South Carolina.

Other assistant coach hires this offseason have been Mike Bobo, who will run the offense and oversee quarterbacks, tight ends Joe Cox and defensive line coach Tracy Rocker. Returning assistant coaches are defensive coordinator and secondary coach Travaris Robinson, offensive line coach Eric Wolford, BUCKs coach Mike Peterson, wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon and Bobby Bentley, whose title has not been made official. He was set to work with quarterbacks this spring before running backs coach Thomas Brown left Columbia for the same position, but in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams. Bentley coached running backs at Carolina from 2016-18 before coaching tight ends in 2019.

Off-field offseason hires included Director of Strength and Conditioning Paul Jackson (previously at Ole Miss), Director of Player Personnel Drew Hughes (previously at Tennessee) and Director of Player Development Connor Shaw.

The Gamecocks will hold their first 2020 spring practice on Feb. 26 and conclude camp on April 4 with the Garnet and Black Spring Game.