Ryan Dougherty

Biography

Ryan Dougherty enters his fifth season at USC. Prior to the 2026 season, he transitioned to Co-Special Teams Coordinator / Specialists Coach. In 2025, Dougherty coached K Ryon Sayeri. In addition to kicking field goals, Sayeri also handled kickoff duties. While appearing in all 13 games, he hit 21-of-25 field goals and all 48 of his PAT attempts. He totaled 89 kickoffs for 5,715 yards (64.2 avg.) with 63 touchbacks. He broke USC’s single-season field goal record (19) and set a new one with 21. Sayeri was named to the All-Big Ten Third Team and was a Lou Groza Award Semifinalist. He was a two-time Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week. In his first season as Special Teams Coordinator, Dougherty tutored Trojan punter Eddie Czaplicki became USC’ 177thFirst Team All-American and USC’s first-ever Ray Guy Award winner for being the nation’s best punter. Czaplicki not only earned All-Big Ten First Team honors by the coaches and the media, but he was named the Eddleman-Fields Punter of the Year by the Conference. USC ranked first in the nation in net punting (45.4). He led the nation in percentage of punts inside the 20 for punters with a minimum of 30 attempts. Twenty-five of his punts were inside the 20, 10 were inside the 10 and 4 inside the 5. Additionally, Makai Lemon was named to the All-Big Ten Third Team as a return specialist. Lemon led USC with 19 kickoff returns for 514 yards (27.1 avg) with a long of 80 yards. He finished the reason ranked No. 6 in the nation (No. 2 in