LOS ANGELES – When Lincoln Riley stood in front of media Nov. 6, a day after USC had ripped off the Band-Aid and fired Alex Grinch in the midst of a defensive stretch that had tanked their season hopes, he was appropriately somber – coming to terms with the fact that he needed to fire a friend in order to advance his program.
And still, Riley expunged the same platitudes he’d stood on all season, expressing faith in USC’s ability to play elite defense. It’s going to happen. There’s no reason why it can’t.
“We’ll continue to take the steps we have to do to do it,” Riley said then, “and we’re going to be very aggressive that way.”
Platitudes, two months later, have become cold and definite reality, USC completely overhauling their defensive staff in a group that looks nothing like the faces that stepped into training camp last summer. And Riley dropped one final exclamation point on Monday, USC announcing they’d hired the Rams’ Eric Henderson – a Super Bowl champ who’d produced years of proven results with an elite line at the NFL level – as their co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach.
“Eric will bring immeasurable knowledge and experience to our program,” Riley wrote in a statement Monday. “We have put together a defensive staff that is second to none. We’re ready to get to work.”
Let’s break it down for a moment. At the start of December, USC hired D’Anton Lynn, recognized as a Broyles Award nominee for his work at UCLA in 2023, away from their cross-town foes. Not long after, they snatched Matt Entz from the FCS’ North Dakota State – where he was a championship-winning head coach – as their linebackers coach, and tabbed former Houston defensive coordinator Doug Belk for the secondary.
All three, in one way or another, bringing something to prove to a program with everything to prove heading into the Big Ten. Lynn proving he’s not just a one-year wonder. Entz proving his FCS experience can translate to the FBS. Belk proving he can recruit with the best in following Donte Williams. All, though, brought a key asset: legitimate coordinator experience up and down USC’s defensive staff.
And USC sealed the deal with Henderson, who brings NFL pedigree and now fills out his resume with the co-coordinator label next to Lynn. USC’s defensive line got off to a strong start in generating pressure in 2023 but rapidly failed to contain the rush up the middle. The Rams have ranked in the top half of the league in rushing defense for four straight seasons under Henderson, including a top-three finish in 2020.
It’ll be interesting to see, though, how USC will navigate a staff with two coordinators, the staff and personnel seeming to bend to Lynn’s vision in the month since his hire. Lynn and Henderson, though, have overlap across NFL backgrounds, with Lynn serving as an assistant for the Chargers in 2021 and Henderson as a defensive line assistant the same season under Lynn’s father D’Anton.
The move marks the final touch on a staff that’s been completely expunged of all Grinch ties. Gone are inside linebackers coach Brian Odom and outside linebackers coach Roy Manning; former defensive line coach Shaun Nua, USC said in a statement Monday, will now coach USC’s defensive ends.
“From a development standpoint, from a staffing standpoint, from the way that we practice,” Riley said upon Lynn’s hire, “everything here is going to be done with a defensive mind first.”