In Reply to: New UCLA Football Defensive Coordinator Named posted by Punahou on January 03, 2024 at 12:16:20
Many here think losing D'Anton Lynn was a major loss for us and a major gain for USC. Based on some of these factors, this might not be the case.
Resume - He was defensive backs coach for the Houston Texans from 2018-2020. They were ranked 26th, 29th and 23rd in passing defense those seasons. He was then hired by the Baltmore Ravens for the same position in 2021 and 2022. They were ranked dead last in the NFL and then 23rd in pass defense. This season, after he left for UCLA, they were 7th in the league.
Adjustments - Against ASU, the defense seemed to have no clue how to defend those funky formations. In the last several regular season games, opponents gained about the same amount of yards and scored about the same number of points in the first and second halves. In the bowl game without him, adjustments were made and we completely shut Boise St down in the second half (other than a late long TD run) after getting run over in the first.
Personnel - You can't be successful without good players and having arguably the best defensive player in the nation will make any coach look good. Latu wasn't the only one, also having Muasau, Toia, the Murphy's, et al. One might say they had the same players last season and didn't do nearly as well, but the defense was playing well until they lost their DC midway through the season to illness and it regressed quite a bit after that. Also, Latu was coming off a two-year layoff
Unless USC gets some defensive superstars in the portal, they will have the most of the same players who were 116th in the nation in total defense. I'd be very surprised if Lynn could duplicate what he did with us this past season or even come close. If ours is significantly worse it would be more due to losing our key players, not the coach.
Lynn surely is a promising young coach, but not worth $2 million.