In a recent interview, Adam Breneman asked Lincoln Riley about the significant changes on USC’s defensive coaching staff. Riley explained the key criteria he used to select the new coaches. He emphasized the qualities he considered crucial for his ideal candidates. His goal: Develop players and restore dominance on defense to Troy.
At the end of last season, Lincoln Riley parted ways with defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. Grinch was one of the members of Riley’s Oklahoma staff who came over with him when he took the Trojan head coaching job in 2021. Riley made it clear there is a standard for defense at USC, and that the coaching staff on that side of the ball was not meeting it.
“Defensively we simply weren’t progressing the way we needed to and in these big jobs momentum is key and we were never quite able to capture that defensively,” he said.
Riley has often talked about vertical alignment at USC, from President Carol Folt, to Athletic Director Jennifer Cohen, on down to the football program. That support allowed him to be “aggressive” in his search for the ideal candidates to fill the defensive staff.
“When you are going to make a change at a place like this I don’t think you can look at it with a small perspective, and we tried not to.” Riley told Breneman. “We tried to focus on development and people that were really proven in both their development of the individual positions and having a lot of people that had big picture oversight, responsibility, and had a lot of success.”
Riley did just that by retaining Shaun Nua, the sole holdover from the 2023 defensive staff, and adding D’Anton Lynn, Eric Henderson, Doug Belk and Matt Entz.
The Trojans made a strategic move by hiring D’Anton Lynn from rival UCLA, not only acquiring one of the brightest young defensive minds in football but also weakening a UCLA team that posed challenges to USC’s offense in 2023. The development of players is a priority for this coaching staff. Eric Henderson was brought in from the Los Angeles Rams to serve as the defensive line coach. Doug Belk, the newcomer as secondary coach, brings a winning pedigree gained through his time as a grad assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama. He also demonstrated leadership as the defensive coordinator for Houston before joining the Trojans. Speaking of winning culture and leadership, Matt Entz, now linebacker coach at USC, took a step down in title from head coach to gain experience in FBS organization and recruiting. Entz continued North Dakota State’s FCS dominance by adding two national championships to NDSU’s trophy case.
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