USC names NFL veteran Rob Ryan its linebackers coach, filling Trojans' final vacancy
With its rising star defensive coordinator secured, USC filled the final vacancy on its defensive staff Saturday, naming a longtime NFL defensive coordinator with 35 years of experience its linebackers coach.
Rob Ryan spent 17 years as an NFL coordinator, leading defenses in Buffalo, Oakland, Cleveland, New Orleans and Dallas. In Buffalo, where twin brother Rex Ryan was head coach, Rob Ryan first worked alongside D’Anton Lynn, who is now USC’s defensive coordinator. They also worked together in 2021 in Baltimore, where Ryan was the inside linebackers coach.
But Lynn’s relationship with the Ryan family traces back even further than that. Rex Ryan was head coach of the New York Jets when Lynn signed as an undrafted free agent in 2012. Lynn played just one season with the Jets, but impressed Ryan enough that he hired Lynn as a scout in 2014. When Ryan left for Buffalo in 2015, he brought Lynn along as an assistant.
“[Rex Ryan] kind of got me into the league, and a lot of things that I do, a lot of the way I see the game always comes back to him,” Lynn said earlier this year.
Read more: USC signs defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn to a contract extension
Ryan was linebackers coach with the Bills during Lynn’s second season in Buffalo. When Rex Ryan was fired, Lynn’s father, Anthony, took over as the Bills' interim coach.
The relationship remained, even as Lynn coached elsewhere. In 2023, upon his hire as UCLA’s defensive coordinator, Ryan told The Times that he believed Lynn was “a superstar.”
While Lynn bounced from that Baltimore staff to that UCLA staff in 2023, Rob Ryan remained in the NFL, serving as a senior defensive assistant with the Raiders. He worked closely with Raiders star defensive end Maxx Crosby through this season, helping guide him to his fourth Pro Bowl Games nod.
Now Ryan is set to rejoin Lynn in Los Angeles, replacing linebackers coach Matt Entz, who was named Fresno State’s head coach last month. The hire was made less than 24 hours after USC announced that Lynn had signed an extension to remain at USC after Penn State, his alma mater, made a concerted effort this week to hire him away from L.A.
Read more: Forged in football alongside his father, D'Anton Lynn aims to revive UCLA's defense
Ryan will take over a linebacker room that’s light on experience, with two regular contributors from last season now off to the NFL. He does inherit star linebacker Eric Gentry, who will return from a season plagued by concussions, as well as an emerging talent in rising sophomore Desman Stephens.
While he spent the last quarter century in the NFL, Ryan does have some experience at the college level.. He was Oklahoma State’s defensive coordinator from 1997-99. Before that, he led the defense at Hutchinson Community College in 1996.
But it’s his NFL experience that stood out to USC head coach Lincoln Riley.
“Rob Ryan is one of the most accomplished defensive coaches in NFL history,” Riley said in a statement. “With over two decades of NFL experience, he will immediately bolster our staff as we continue our climb here at USC. He has coached some of the NFL’s top players, including numerous Hall of Famers and All-Pro selections. We’re thrilled to welcome Coach Ryan and his family to our program.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
