Joe Barry is the San Diego Chargers New Linebackers Coach

It would appear that Joe Barry, currently working as the Linebackers Coach at his alma mater USC, has been picked by John Pagano to take the open Linebackers Coach position for the San Diego Chargers.

USC linebackers coach Joe Barry will take a similar position with the San Diego Chargers.

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) February 3, 2012

He just told the team so some USC players are tweeting about it FWIW. #ButHeGone

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) February 3, 2012

Obviously this Barry to the Chargers thing had been in the works for a little bit.

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) February 3, 2012

A rundown of Barry's history in the NFL lies after the jump.

After spending a year as the Defensive Quality Control Coach of the San Francisco 49ers in 2000, Barry was chosen by Monte Kiffin to be the Linebackers Coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2001 and held that position there for six seasons. Stolen from his USC bio page:

He was a member of the 2002 Super Bowl champions that led the league in total defense and scoring defense. The Buccaneers were ranked among the NFL's top 5 in total defense 3 others times during his tenure, including first in 2005 when they won the NFC South Division. His linebackers were named to the Pro Bowl 7 times, including 2002 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Derrick Brooks.

That's not too shabby. In 2007, when Tampa's Defensive Line Coach (Rod Marinelli, who is also Barry's father-in-law) was chosen to be the Head Coach of the Detroit Lions, Barry went along with him to be his Defensive Coordinator. During his two seasons there, his defenses didn't play too well, which led to an odd exchange during a press conference:

On December 21, 2008, at a press conference following the Lions' 42-7 loss to the New Orleans Saints, Detroit News sports columnist Rob Parker addressed a question about Barry to Marinelli, inquiring whether Marinelli wished that his daughter had "married a better defensive coordinator." The question was criticized as unprofessional and inappropriate. The next day, Parker wrote that the comment was "an attempt at humor" and not a malicious attack. Parker has not written for the Detroit News since, and has not attended any press conferences since the incident, including the one Marinelli gave following his dismissal as head coach of the Lions. On January 6, 2009, the Detroit News announced that Parker had resigned from the newspaper the previous week.

Good lord, that's juicy. After Marinelli was fired, Barry went back to coaching the Buccaneers' Linebackers for one season (2009) before returning to USC to coach their LBs for the last two years.

All in all, this seems like a great get for the Chargers and Pagano (and Rich Bisaccia, who was on the same staff as Barry in TB). Outside of his brief stint as Defensive Coordinator, Barry has successfully coached up the LBs he's had. Hopefully this is another Rob Chudzinski-like hire.