But USC’s rising star defensive coordinator said on Wednesday that he has not been contacted about the open job across town and reiterated that his attention was trained on the Trojans’ upcoming matchup with Michigan State on Saturday night.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff on defense that we’ve got to clean up and improve on,” Lynn said. “So that’s where all my focus is right now.”
Lynn, who spent the 2023 season as UCLA’s defensive coordinator, signed a contract extension with USC in January that made him one of the highest-paid assistants in college football after his alma mater, Penn State, pursued him for its open defensive coordinator job.
But until now, Lynn’s name had never been connected to any head coaching jobs.
The pursuit from Penn State came after Lynn transformed the Trojans’ struggling defense in a single season. After hitting rock bottom under previous coordinator Alex Grinch, USC gave up 10 fewer points per game under Lynn last season, leaping from 121st in the nation (34.4 points per game) to a respectable 56th (24.1). The defense improved considerably against the run, giving up nearly 50 fewer yards per game, and with its tackling, missing three fewer on average per game.
That progress has continued so far into 2025, as USC has allowed just 16.7 points per game through three weeks, albeit against lesser competition.
Lynn engineered a similar overhaul of UCLA’s defense in his first season as a defensive coordinator. After inheriting a group that finished 87th in yards allowed and 90th in points allowed, he transformed UCLA’s defense into a consensus top 10 unit.
At the time, then-Bruins head coach Chip Kelly said that UCLA “definitely would love to keep D’Anton here.”
“I know our administration knows how valuable D’Anton is to us,” said Kelly, who left UCLA a month after Lynn. “He’s done a tremendous job, and he’s a really good football coach.”
Lynn left less than a week later for USC, which doubled his salary as defensive coordinator.
How determined he is to keep climbing that ladder remains to be seen. Lynn first rose through the ranks as an assistant in the NFL and multiple teams have kept a close eye on him since he left for college football.
But like so many others in his position, Lynn did acknowledge he still has hopes of being a head coach someday.
“I think everyone who gets into coaching wants to at some point,” Lynn said. “But you know, it’s a long process. There’s so much in front of your face that if you stop paying attention to that, bad things happen.”
(Photo by David Crane, LADN/SCNG)
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Evidently both Nick Marsh and Frazier are going to play on Saturday.
Marsh is one of the better receivers in the BIG. Their best.
Frazier is a solid RB with moves. Their best.
Both were injured last week and were questionable.
Does anyone think it’s a good gameplan for the DBs & Safeties to set up so far back on a lot of plays like they did against Purdue giving WRs so much space up front? It appears Lynn doesn’t have the confidence our DBs can line up closer to their assignments and stay with them as we saw the Trojan D was willing to give up short uncontested passes keeping the plays in front of the defenders until reaching the red zone. Is this inviting easier scoring opportunities for the other side each time they get the ball?
It did seem that USC went into a prevent defense after getting bit early for the touchdown.
Maybe the DBs are not experienced or not fast enough to keep up with the WRs.
The DL is good but with the backs playing so far back, it makes the other team easier to run the ball.
So they stopped the long play but made it easier for short gains.
As long as they adjust to the situation
Get rid of the ball earlier Caleb! Caleb Williams holds onto the ball for 3.28 secs, the longest by a long shot over most QBs in the League. 2.7 secs is the average, so Caleb’s keeping the ball in his hands a full half second too long on every passing play. During his time at USC, he never learned to correct his ingrained “Hero Ball” instincts and thus his play diminished after his fantastic 2022 Heisman season. The knock on #1 Draft pick Caleb coming out of USC by NFL evaluators was always their loud concern about his ability to… Read more »
College Football Week 4 Best Bets: B1GBets Big Ten Expert Picks USC OVER 36.5 (-105 DraftKings) vs. Michigan State Time: 11:00 PM | TV: FOX Danny Mogollon (Sports Grid) — USC’s offense has been as good (55 PPG is 2nd nationally!) as any we’ve seen in college football through the first three weeks of the season. Offensively, they’re first in EPA, second in points/drive, and third in success rate. Not into the advanced metrics? How do you feel about 9.6 yards per play!?! They’ve gobbled up yards throwing and rushing the football. Jayden Maiava has played like Lincoln Riley knew what he was doing when he… Read more »
I think Trojans are over rated here. May have the #1 offense but the defense is #59, playing cupcakes.
Some rumors about a Dabo – ucla connection. Now THAT would be a cultural mismatch of epic proportions.
Hardly seems possible, does it? But I guess you never know in this world. Who would have ever thought Lincoln Riley would leave OU for USC? Not I.
Dabo is a strong Christian. Going to westwood would be like moving to Sodom and Gomorrah. Never will happen, I say.
Are we sure Max Nikias didn’t sneak across town to finish what he couldn’t accomplish here: distroying a University football program?
Why Michigan State’s football game vs USC will kick off at 11 p.m. Jon Wilner (Seattle Times) — Yes, Michigan State fans in East Lansing and across the Midwest must wait until 11 p.m. local time for the Sept. 20 kickoff. Watching the entire game will require staying awake until at least 2 a.m. The players and coaches won’t return to campus until midmorning Sunday. While seen as an affront to the Spartans, the sport and the free world — to be clear: USC fans aren’t happy, either — the kickoff time makes perfect sense for one of the… Read more »
Thanks Allen, I still don’t like it though. Not that it is a huge deal here on the west coast. If they just win, the game times will become much better.
Thank you, Allen, for sharing this. I’m in Northwest Arizona and will get the game at 8pm local time. I’ll probably fall asleep by halftime, especially if USC is winning the game. I have memories of USC vs MSU going back to my Senior year at USC in 1976. USC and MSU played in the LA Coliseum and Kirk Gibson was the wideout for MSU. Yes, he’s the same Kirk Gibson who hit the dramatic home run in game 1 of the 1988 World Series for the LA Dodgers. Also, I remember the 1988 Rose Bowl where favored USC and… Read more »
Will tOSU ever have to travel to the west coast for an 8pm Pacific,11pm Eastern kickoff? When pigs fly….
There are certain perks that come with winning constantly. I get it.
USC could get stuck with 8pm games often as long as they are out of the top 10. The networks know they can get a good size audience from socal no matter what time. OSU, Michigan and Penn St will never have that problem.
If we would just start winning more games, everything will be fine. It’s funny how winning cures everything.
The game may not start on time as it is. FOX has ASU at Baylor 4:30 PT. FOX has 4 games Saturday but the BTN only has one. Guess the BTN has no say at all.
Wonderful well written piece……thanks……the viewership in the EST should be me and my wife….and a few thousand in Lansing.
Colin Cowherd went out of his way today to suggest that Bears coach Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams still obviously aren’t really on the same page, or aligned in their thinking about how to play the game.
Cowherd talked about their relationship for several minutes, at one point saying, “Something here is not good.”
All signs point to Johnson publicly and privately appreciating backup QB Tyson Bagent’s (#17, SHEPHERD,’18–’22) more business-like and fundamentally sound approach to the NFL much more.
Stay tuned. Caleb may have a problem coming in Chicago.
He ain’t going to make it. How many times can you blame the coach.
UCLA should focus on who they are. A basketball school. They could fit a 25-30,000 seat stadium for football, soccer and lacrosse where the current soccer and intramural fields are and ditch the Rose Bowl. They can join the rest of the BIG football doormats, take the BIG TV money and invest in basketball, other sports and paying off debt. Lynn should not go back to UCLA. It would be doomed to failure for him. In a couple years at USC he will have much better offers to HC.
That’s my thinking. However some Universities want their cake and eat it too taking in money they never earn but feel they deserve due to their socialistic attitude. Their football program will never contend for a conference championship because they flat out don’t care about the sport and have been proving it for decades.
Good call, Jamaica. Cal and ucla are poor socialists who would like to be rich and tell everyone else how superior they are and the Leland Stanford JUNIOR University are rich socialists who have misplaced guilt about their success. Idjits, every one of them.
I’ve loved watching the demise of CAL and STAN, each of whom reveled in NCAA’s take down of USC. Seeing them shipped off to the ACC cracked me up.
Surprisingly (to me at least), 3-0 CAL seems to have a pretty decent team his year. They just smashed MINN 27-14, whom we lost to 24-17 last season. Ugh…
Well, Cal is getting the B1G alimony from ucla for another couple of years, so they can play a bit more in NIL land. All at the bruins expense–sweet!
The Bruins definitely got hosed. Strange bedfellows with CAL.
I suppose Lynn would make a good head coach somewhere. He is great at understanding his team and players. I just don’t think he’s ready to jump to that level at Ucla. They need a complete 180+ degrees turn around. They need to hire someone who doesn’t embrace their liberal stance on campus and can cut to the chase in football.
I don’t think it will happen, and even if it does they are sunk for a couple more years with their poor recruitment and lack of discipline.
The Spartans vs. the Trojans used to be a West Covina thing before West Covina school district consolidated the two schools and closed Edgewood High School. West Covina High students voted to become Bulldogs after the merger and the rivalry died. John McKay lived in West Covina but his sons (including Pat Haden) played at the local Catholic school.
Recently Edgewood High was reopened as combined middle and high schools. They don’t have a football team. If they did the rivalry would be the Bulldogs vs. the Lions.
And that’s your history for today.
Yeah, and I will be in the Eastern time zone Saturday. 11:00pm start is insanity! Why would the B1G bury the game like this?!?! Seems like more exposure is what you want, not less.
11 pm broadcast, UGH! I am right there with you VT. And the kickoff won’t be at 11 pm, they might drag it out until 11:15 so the announcers can get in all of their precious pregame analysis to us. I can’t promise I will be a real-time poster Saturday night, TDB family–unless I have insomnia, but you never know.
I’m catching a cruise Sunday from Boston up to Nova Scotia and back, some much needed R&R. I’ll have to decide how dead feeling I want to start my vacation if I stay up to watch it.
Sunday afternoon I see a chase lounge and an umbrella drink in your future! 🛳🍹
Right on, GT!
Grab some lobsters up there at Halifax.