{"id":177662,"date":"2026-02-14T07:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T07:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/177662\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T07:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T07:02:18","slug":"usc-coach-lincoln-riley-wraps-staff-mixing-continuity-new-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/177662\/","title":{"rendered":"USC coach Lincoln Riley wraps staff mixing continuity, new energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When D\u2019Anton Lynn abruptly left for Penn State<\/a> on the eve of USC\u2019s bowl game, the hope within the program had been to keep what remained of his defensive staff intact. All while also attracting a top-notch defensive coordinator to take Lynn\u2019s place.<\/p>\n

But Lincoln Riley<\/a>, after four years of regular churn with his staff at USC, was also realistic. The coach had learned by now how quickly plans could change with the coaching carousel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really doesn\u2019t matter what team you are,\u201d Riley said in December. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what staff you are. Doesn\u2019t matter what your postseason situation is like. \u2026 We\u2019ve been through this now for a few years. So you can\u2019t always predict everything that\u2019s going to happen, but this time of year, you have to be ready to adjust. It\u2019s just the nature of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some adjustments, as Riley suggested then, were probably inevitable.<\/p>\n

\"New <\/p>\n

New USC defensive coordinator Gary Patterson takes questions from the media during a news conference.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The worst of it came late in the carousel, when defensive line coach Eric Henderson elected to return to the NFL, departing for the same position with the Washington Commanders. Losing Henderson, from a recruiting perspective alone, is significant. He finished the last recruiting cycle as the nation\u2019s top-ranked recruiter, according to 247 Sports.<\/p>\n

It was Henderson who took over the defense for USC\u2019s bowl game, which led some players to voice their belief he should get the full-time gig. His name was floated for other jobs, too, including the coordinator position at his alma mater, Georgia Tech.<\/p>\n

USC hoped to retain him as defensive line coach. But with the program determined to go outside of its staff for a new coordinator, Henderson ultimately chose to leave.<\/p>\n

USC also moved on from secondary coach Doug Belk, who\u2019d also been mentioned as a potential internal candidate. He spent the previous two seasons as a leading voice on USC\u2019s defensive staff. But his contract was not renewed.<\/p>\n

In hiring longtime Texas Christian coach Gary Patterson<\/a>, Riley found the rare coordinator happy to blend in with a staff that\u2019s largely in place already. Last month, in his first meeting with reporters, Patterson said he viewed himself more as \u201cthat last piece\u201d<\/a> on USC\u2019s staff. He even assured he\u2019d adapt his 4-2-5 defensive scheme to what USC did under Lynn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe group that\u2019s here, they improved the defense last year,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cSo instead of just coming in and saying, \u2018Well this is how we\u2019re gonna do it, it\u2019s been a little bit more work of trying to put both of them together, understanding they did a great job and recruiting really good players. So you gotta really kind of listen a little bit more before you say this how we [do it].\u201d<\/p>\n

Some unique aspects of Patterson\u2019s scheme, however, are probably best left in familiar hands. That\u2019s especially the case with his secondary, which is called separately from the front seven.<\/p>\n

It stands to reason then that Patterson would bring Paul Gonzales, a defensive backs coach who worked with Patterson for nearly half of his tenure at TCU. He left Baylor to join USC\u2019s staff and is expected to lead the Trojans entire secondary. He\u2019ll be joined by Sam Carter, a former all-Big 12 safety who played under Patterson.<\/p>\n

The rest of the staff remains largely intact from last season. Defensive ends coach Shaun Nua<\/a> stuck with USC amid rumors of interest from his alma mater, Brigham Young. Trovon Reed will continue to coach cornerbacks and Rob Ryan<\/a>, for the time being at least, remains as linebackers coach.<\/p>\n

After a debut that produced mixed results with a thin linebacker room, Ryan\u2019s status has been up in the air over the past two months. Whether he returns or not, his unit will have another voice in the linebacker room in Year 2. Mike Ekeler<\/a>, who previously coached at USC under Lane Kiffin<\/a> in 2013, was hired away from Nebraska to coach both special teams and linebackers.<\/p>\n

Two defensive analysts were also promoted to full-time roles, as Skyler Jones, in his third season on staff, will coach defensive tackles and AJ Howard, entering his second, will coach outside linebackers.<\/p>\n

That makes nine coaches on USC\u2019s defensive staff alone, three more than it employed last season.<\/p>\n

As of 2024, there are no longer limits on the number of coaches who can provide on-field instruction, meaning the Trojans can have as many assistants on staff as they please. But only 10 total, plus the head coach, are allowed to recruit off-campus. It\u2019s unclear who among USC\u2019s current staff will fill those 10 roles.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the ball, Riley was able to keep the whole band together. Offensive line coach Zach Hanson<\/a> was pursued heavily by his alma mater, Kansas State, to be offensive coordinator under new coach Collin Klein, who Hanson considers to be one of his closest friends.<\/p>\n

Still, Hanson chose to stick with USC and Riley, whose offense will return not just every member of its staff, but also its entire offensive line, its star running back and a Heisman candidate at quarterback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When D\u2019Anton Lynn abruptly left for Penn State on the eve of USC\u2019s bowl game, the hope within…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[29329,32699,4690,66008,32697,84432,48,52,51,32698,62799,47,50,49,84431,24879,278,5560,84433,3533,72],"class_list":["post-177662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alma-mater","tag-bowl-game","tag-coach","tag-continuity","tag-danton-lynn","tag-defensive-staff","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lincoln-riley","tag-linebacker-coach","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-losing-henderson","tag-patterson","tag-season","tag-staff","tag-thin-linebacker-room","tag-usc","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}