Riley believes Lynn will turn USC defense around

• Jake Trotter, ESPN Staff WriterJul 24, 2024, 01:15 PM ET

  Close

  Jake Trotter covers the Cleveland Browns for ESPN. He signed up with ESPN in 2011 covering college football. Before that, he worked at The Oklahoman, Austin American-Statesman and Middletown (Ohio) Journal newspapers. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Trotter.

INDIANAPOLIS– USC coach Lincoln Riley stated he believes brand-new protective organizer D’Anton Lynn will help reverse a Trojans defense that was amongst the worst in the country last season.Riley employed Lynn away from rival UCLA. Under Lynn, the Bruins ranked 8th nationally, permitting simply 4.55 backyards per play; USC, on the other hand, ranked 104th, quiting 6.10 backyards per play.”He certainly authored the most significant turnaround in protective college football last year, and I got a front-row seat at it, “Riley said of Lynn throughout Big 10 media days Wednesday.”I thought the changes he made there were staggering.”Before coming to UCLA prior to the 2023 season,

Lynn invested nine years in the NFL. He’s the kid of former Los Angeles Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn, who now is an assistant with the Washington Commanders.Riley confessed that he knew he would employ D’Anton Lynn last December after their very first phone

call. “I simply believed he fit what we want to do from a team and a culture perspective,”Riley said

.” I enjoyed his NFL experience, specifically some of the [coaching] trees that he came out of, and then we shared, I think, a lot of really comparable beliefs in how defense should be played and established, ended up each other’s sentences, in regards to philosophy and how we felt like this would be developed.” Riley noted that he believes Lynn will assist coach around any skill shortages the Trojans

may still have on the protective side.”We’re still in our climb, and our talent base has gotten better and it’s going to continue to improve,”said Riley, who is entering his 3rd season at USC. “But I desire coaches that can adjust to what we have on a given year, and I believe the best coaches are able to do that, and I believe D’Anton certainly has an eye and ability to do that at a high level.”Riley fired defensive planner Alex Grinch last November after USC surrendered a combined 101 points over a two-game stretch. Riley admitted that having high-powered offenses alone isn’t good enough, especially as the Trojans enter the Big Ten.”If you think back to USC history and when this program, which is most of history, has actually been elite, there were elite defenses to go along with that year

in and year out,”Riley said.”And that is our aim, that’s our goal which is what we are going to get back to.”