Outside linebackers coach Roy Manning out at USC as staff restructuring continues

LOS ANGELES — It seemed a pretty standard farewell announcement, all things considered, a heartfelt message dropped on his social media account by USC’s outside linebackers coach Roy Manning on Thursday thanking everyone around Troy for his two years on staff.

“Never stop believing that what’s coming is better …. I’ll do the same,” Manning wrote in a Twitter graphic, as part of a section addressing his players.

Except this, maybe not in theory but in execution, was a surprise. Manning had hit the recruiting trail seemingly harder than any other USC assistant in the weeks following their end-of-regular-season loss to UCLA, securing the signings of key edge rushers like Kameryn Fountain and Elijah Newby and bringing in a late flip from Lorenzo Cowan, whom he visited at Jenkins High in Savannah, Georgia. And the farewell letter almost couldn’t even be called that, because it was incredibly inconspicuous, coming without a shred of a leak or news from USC’s front about a potential incoming hire to replace him.

“I’m speechless because you gave my son an opportunity of his life … Love u big dawg and we are locked TF IN,” Fountain’s mother, Kaycee Crawford, replied under Manning’s post, with a slew of exclamation marks and crying-face emojis. “I don’t like this at all!!!!!!”

After defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn’s hire, football general manager Dave Emerick told the Southern California News Group that he would have the opportunity to both sit down with all the defensive assistants on USC’s roster and to suggest other names on the market. USC head coach Lincoln Riley, too, told reporters that the program’s “north star” was “building the best defensive staff in America here.” But it’s become clear, with some of the moves in recent weeks – North Dakota State’s Matt Entz in at linebackers coach, Houston defensive coordinator Doug Belk in at defensive backs coach and Donte Williams out – that building that staff has meant cleaning house.

A source with knowledge of the situation told the Southern California News Group that Manning and inside linebackers coach Brian Odom were let go by USC, confirming it was largely in relation to Lynn’s desire to bring in a new defensive staff. It’s a change in regime and a fresh start from the collapse under former coordinator Alex Grinch.

“Anybody connected to Grinch,” the source wrote in a text, “is now gone.”

That might leave defensive line coach Shaun Nua, whose background coaching at Michigan would bring directly translatable experience for USC’s foray into the Big Ten, as the only face left standing from USC’s former defensive staff. Regardless, though, the complete staff restructuring points to the widespread philosophical change Riley has mentioned in USC’s defensive scheme under Lynn, “a very different system than what we were running previously,” as the head coach said after Lynn’s hire was announced.

And it points, too, to a further distancing of USC’s program from the Grinch era, the ugly split between Riley and Grinch that marred their 2023 season.

“I knew it was a decision that was the right decision at this time and point, and it certainly didn’t make it easy, but I am that committed and we’re all that committed to playing great defense here – and whatever it takes to get that done, that’s what we’re gonna do,” Riley said after Grinch’s firing in November.

A quote that, when looking back, was a clear foreshadowing for USC’s offseason.