Since DeShaun Foster was fired earlier this week, D’Anton Lynn has been close to the highest of most potential lists of head teaching candidates for UCLA.
However USC’s rising star defensive coordinator mentioned on Wednesday that he has not been contacted in regards to the open job throughout city and reiterated that his consideration was skilled on the Trojans’ upcoming matchup with Michigan State on Saturday night time.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff on defense that we’ve got to clean up and improve on,” Lynn mentioned. “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 many highest-paid assistants in school soccer after his alma mater, Penn State, pursued him for its open defensive coordinator job.
However till now, Lynn’s title had by no means been related to any head teaching jobs.
The pursuit from Penn State got here after Lynn reworked the Trojans’ struggling protection in a single season. After hitting all-time low below earlier coordinator Alex Grinch, USC gave up 10 fewer factors per recreation below Lynn final season, leaping from 121st within the nation (34.4 factors per recreation) to a good 56th (24.1). The protection improved significantly in opposition to the run, giving up practically 50 fewer yards per recreation, and with its tackling, lacking three fewer on common per recreation.
That progress has continued to date into 2025, as USC has allowed simply 16.7 factors per recreation by means of three weeks, albeit in opposition to lesser competitors.
Lynn engineered an analogous overhaul of UCLA’s protection in his first season as a defensive coordinator. After inheriting a gaggle that completed 87th in yards allowed and ninetieth in factors allowed, he reworked UCLA’s protection right into a consensus high 10 unit.
On the time, then-Bruins head coach Chip Kelly mentioned that UCLA “definitely would love to keep D’Anton here.”
“I know our administration knows how valuable D’Anton is to us,” mentioned Kelly, who left UCLA a month after Lynn. “He’s done a tremendous job, and he’s a really good football coach.”
Lynn left lower than every week later for USC, which doubled his wage as defensive coordinator.
How decided he’s to maintain climbing that ladder stays to be seen. Lynn first rose by means of the ranks as an assistant within the NFL and a number of groups have stored a detailed eye on him since he left for faculty soccer.
However like so many others in his place, Lynn did acknowledge he nonetheless has hopes of being a head coach sometime.
“I think everyone who gets into coaching wants to at some point,” Lynn mentioned. “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.”
