LOS ANGELES — With growing smoke around USC’s future, the program going down in flames after a disastrous 7-5 season in Coach Lincoln Riley’s second year, the first fire to extinguish was a looming question mark at defensive coordinator.
And for two weeks, flames burned, the fan base’s confusion increasing as the clock slowly ticked toward the transfer portal’s opening this coming Monday. But patience paid dividends – as a complete bombshell dropped, ironically, directly in the middle of the Pac-12 championship game.
On Friday night, news broke from multiple outlets that USC had hired coordinator D’Anton Lynn away from UCLA, a home-run hire hugely impactful for USC’s present and future and the type of all-in move that could completely turn the tides of a program coming off a disappointing season.
It’s a hire that adds credibility behind Riley’s emphatic words about USC’s commitment to defense in early November, a day after the firing of coordinator Alex Grinch, who had hopped on the plane with Riley from Oklahoma to Southern California and had been the butt of criticism for two years over consistently underwhelming units. Riley’s faith in Grinch, starting his second and potentially last season with Caleb Williams at quarterback, was admirable at the time, but misplaced in hindsight – promoting staffers Shaun Nua and Brian Odom to co-interim coordinator came too late, and USC was steamrolled by both Oregon and UCLA in consecutive losses to end the year.
“I have complete belief and conviction, we will play great defense here,” Riley said, after Grinch’s firing. “It is going to happen.”
It was harder to believe, then. Easier, now. In just one season at UCLA after serving as the safeties coach for the Baltimore Ravens, Lynn led a complete defensive turnaround after years of futile units under Chip Kelly, a program that finished 92nd in opponent points-per-game in 2022 becoming one of the staunchest units in the country in 2023.
The Bruins finished eighth nationally in yards per play allowed (4.55) and 16th in scoring defense (18.1 ppg) and held USC to 3 rushing yards, posted four sacks and forced two turnovers in a 38-20 victory over the Trojans last month. Lynn got elite performances, in particular, out of members of UCLA’s secondary like Alex Johnson and John Humphrey, a welcome sign for a USC cornerback group that too often was torched for explosive plays this past season.
The question, now, is whether Lynn will have the talent to mold an elite defense for USC in 2024. The Trojans’ incoming defensive freshman class is fairly weak, and it’s fair to wonder whether the length of the search will cost USC when it comes to elite transfer portal players who already announced their decision to change schools.
“I’m not gonna sacrifice anything for getting the right person,” Riley said of the recruiting window in early November. “That’s the most important thing, because these are decisions that have a long-ranging impact on our program, and it’s a decision you don’t make lightly in the first place.”
For UCLA, meanwhile, it’s a crippling blow to a program already reeling with vitriol over Kelly’s job security and a recent announcement from highly-touted freshman quarterback Dante Moore that he was hitting the transfer portal.