After transforming USC’s struggling defense in a single season, rising star defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn has signed a contract extension to remain at USC, the university announced Thursday.
The deal comes after Lynn rebuffed advances from his alma mater, Penn State, which had pursued him for its coordinator opening, according to a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly.
USC had already made Lynn one of the highest-paid coordinators in college football when it hired him away from UCLA last December. That original contract, a person with knowledge of the deal not authorized to speak publicly told The Times at the time, paid Lynn upward of $2 million per year.
The terms of Lynn’s extension were not known, but the move to retain him was a critical one, considering how far the Trojans defense had come during his only season as coordinator.
Lynn was believed to be a leading candidate for the open coordinator job at Penn State, where he once played cornerback, after the Nittany Lions’ last defensive coordinator, Tom Allen, took the open job at Clemson. Lynn was also expected to receive interest from NFL teams, given his previous experience as an NFL assistant.
Instead, he’ll remain at USC, after the school’s leaders moved quickly to secure the prized assistant.
After bottoming out under previous coordinator Alex Grinch, USC allowed 10 fewer points per game under Lynn in 2024, leaping from 121st in the nation in points allowed last season (34.4 per game) to a respectable 56th (24.1). The run defense took a major step forward, allowing nearly 50 yards fewer on the ground per game. There were fewer missed tackles — from 11 on average per game to eight — while USC improved leaps and bounds on third down and in its red zone defense.
“You can look at the stats and see a pretty massive difference there,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said in November. “But I don’t think that tells the whole story. I think D’Anton’s been a really consistent leader.”
While far from elite, the defense that once kept USC out of the College Football Playoff emerged as one of the bright spots of an otherwise up-and-down season. Much of that credit goes to Lynn, who inherited a defense that was down most of its top contributors in the front seven by the midway point of the season.
USC’s best pass rusher, Eric Gentry, was forced to sit out the rest of the season after just five games due to a series of concussions. Defensive end Anthony Lucas suffered an injury that ended his season after seven games, while defensive tackle Bear Alexander, who was expected to step into a major role, left the team after just three weeks with the intention of entering the transfer portal.
Still, Lynn managed to make it work, even as USC struggled to produce much of a pass rush throughout. To counteract those issues, Lynn opted to blitz consistently from the secondary, doing what he could to keep opposing quarterbacks off balance.
USC should be better in that regard in Lynn’s second season, with Gentry returning and two transfer defensive tackles, Jah Jarrett and Keeshawn Silver, joining from the Southeastern conference. He’ll have safety Kamari Ramsey returning in the secondary, too, after the Trojans top defensive back spurned the draft to play for Lynn one last season.
Speculation over Lynn’s potential departure had ramped up in recent days, since the Penn State job came open. USC already lost linebacker coach Matt Entz, safeties coach Taylor Mays and offensive line coach Josh Henson since the season ended just three weeks ago.
But for Lynn, USC was ready to move swiftly, assuring its future on defense remains headed in the right direction.