Why D’Anton Lynn was the only offer USC made for its next defensive coordinator

LOS ANGELES — All roads in this USC program have always led back to the late Mike Leach, the legendary figure whose coaching tree branches through Lincoln Riley and a swath of USC’s sideline.

So the bombshell hiring of UCLA defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, it seemed, was a notable departure from that history for Riley, a home run swing on an up-and-comer. Except a morsel of history still ties Lynn here – once upon a time, a defensive back out of Celina High in Texas recruited heavily by Leach and Texas Tech.

“At the end of the day,” said Dave Emerick, the USC football program’s general manager and formerly a member of Leach’s Texas Tech staff, “he broke our hearts and went to Penn State.”

Fifteen years later, life has come full circle, as Emerick and company’s full-bore pursuit of Lynn finally paid off in minting him as USC’s next defensive coordinator. The son of former Chargers coach Anthony Lynn and a “rising star in the coaching profession,” as Riley put it, the 34-year-old Lynn’s one-year ascent at UCLA to a Broyles Award nomination was the stuff of marvel – completely transforming a mediocre Bruins defense into one of the best units in the country.

“I went into this thing with the goal of bringing the very best here,” Riley said, “and I feel like we’ve done that.”

This “thing,” upon reflection, was a two-week gauntlet of a search that was kept tightly guarded amid constant conjecture. Riley, he said Monday, had spoken with some of the best defensive minds in the country. Rumors flew about around Illinois defensive analyst Jim Leonhard and Nebraska coordinator Tony White; it was a coveted position, Emerick said.

And yet, as Emerick said, after taking time to vet Lynn’s background and speaking with former colleagues, “everything kinda pointed back to D’Anton.”

“D’Anton was the only guy that we ever made an offer to,” Emerick said.

Lynn’s alignment with Riley’s vision

In early November, the emotional toll of having fired a friend written in the lines of his face, Riley made a proclamation multiple times – USC would field a great defense.

“Period,” Riley said. “It’s gonna happen soon. There’s no reason why it can’t.”

That commitment to the defensive side of the ball had been questioned by the public since Riley’s days dating to Oklahoma, an offensive mastermind who never trotted out a truly elite unit on the other side of the ball. It was a constant around the program, the knowledge that Caleb Williams and company could only go as far as a defense that could reliably get them the ball.

“Realistically – yeah, there was pressure since the first day back after last season,” said a source close to the program.

It was a constant, too, that eventually led to the firing of scapegoat defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, and led to Riley having to emphatically assert his vision for USC’s defense in that November press conference. The importance of the hire, Emerick said, was paramount – even taking priority to haste with the opening of the transfer portal window on Dec. 3.

And within that importance, Riley made clear on Monday, he had a couple of non-negotiables in searching for a candidate. The first priority, he said, was a style of playing with size up front – an area exposed often in USC’s defense this past season, particularly in a loss to Oregon in which the Ducks generated 23 pressures and USC generated all of three.

“Does it need to get better? Hell yeah,” Riley said after that game, when asked about USC’s approach to building size up front. “Is it gonna get better? Hell yeah.”

The second priority, Riley indicated, was flexibility in adapting to personnel; not someone who would bring a set-in-stone scheme, but someone with “creativity,” as the head coach described.

It’s there where Lynn’s background becomes paramount, as he bounced around the NFL at various stops before settling in for a two-year run as the defensive backs coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Tough to ignore the pedigree, Riley said. And the boxes checked led to an aggressive pursuit, as Emerick said “UCLA obviously wanted to keep him very badly” – and a source close to the situation said USC made an offer higher than the $1.02 million deal Lynn had signed with UCLA.

“We made a push to keep D’Anton, and obviously weren’t in the ballpark from that standpoint,” UCLA coach Chip Kelly said on Sunday.

The future of USC’s defensive philosophy

This was such a big swing of a hire, in part, because a host of more established names existed on the market. Yes, Lynn has that NFL pedigree – but he’s also served just one year as a college coordinator, and conventional wisdom stands: what if he doesn’t have enough experience? 

“There obviously was a level of, he just did this one year, so – is it just a one-year wonder type-thing?” Emerick said. “But that’s where you have really in-depth conversations, and get to know really what he’s all about. So the more we talked to him, the more comfortable we got with him, the more we felt that he would be a really, really good pairing with Coach Riley’s offense.”

And Lynn will bring plenty of philosophical changes, as Riley has said. The coordinator got the most out of a UCLA line ripe with talent, the Bruins finishing the season ranked sixth in the FBS in sacks. He blends pressure, too, with a healthy mix of loose zone in the secondary that limited big plays from Williams when USC faced the Bruins to close the regular season.

“This is a very different system,” Riley said, “than what we were running previously.”

As the offseason – and transfer portal movement – rages on, it will be notable to see how the personnel molds in Lynn’s image. The same program source told the Southern California News Group that USC’s defensive coaches, this week, are out “recruiting as if we’re coming back … we’re kind of all fighting for our lives, fighting for our jobs.”

“We’re gonna do whatever’s best for the program,” Emerick said when asked about potential defensive staffing changes. “D’Anton will have the opportunity to visit with all our assistant coaches currently, he’ll have a chance to suggest some other coaches out there, and just kinda figure out the best mix for our team going forward.”

That same staff, it appears, will have an audition of sorts for their 2024 jobs in the Holiday Bowl. Lynn, the source said, won’t be coaching on the field or calling plays against Louisville on Dec. 27 in San Diego – likely because elevating him would mean dropping a coach from “countable” status in accordance with NCAA rules. He’ll still be present in team meetings and preparation, the source said.

All will be evaluated, it seems, under the standard Riley put forth to Lynn: all hands on deck to “accelerate the process” of playing great defense at USC, Riley said Monday.

“The ultimate goal is to play great defense around here,” Emerick said, “and D’Anton is not scared of that. He’s not intimidated by that. That’s what he’s come here to do, and we’re very excited about that.”