Lincoln Riley was drawn to D’Anton Lynn as a candidate for USC’s defensive coordinator opening for a lot of reasons. Many of those reasons flow from what Riley saw and heard when he talked to Lynn face to face. However, the root of this decision and why Riley made it comes from the 2022 college football season.
Lynn did impress Riley in the job interview process. Any candidate for any job would necessarily have to impress the interviewer in order to get hired. This goes for any line of work, not just football coaching. However, there was something beyond the simple fact that Lynn aced the interview. He already had something in his pocket which increased his chances of working with Riley at USC.
It’s not as complicated as it might seem, either: