Lincoln Riley opens up on hire of D'Anton Lynn, Matt Entz

USC had a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback the last couple years but was unable to win championships in part because of a porous defense that proved problematic time and time again. In steps new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.

Head coach Lincoln Riley turned to Lynn after parting ways with former coordinator Alex Grinch.

Riley was asked at Big Ten Media Days if the team’s improved tackling in the team’s bowl game last year — a real problem spot throughout the season — was a product of Lynn stepping in. Riley laughed, then launched into an answer about what he hopes is a permanent change.

“D’Anton wasn’t even coaching, so hell if he did that, wait till you see what he does when he’s actually coaching,” Riley said, smiling. “I think the guys in the bowl game, there was just a different mentality around the football team. That’s honestly the best way I can explain it.

“Those six weeks, it was almost like you had a new team, and in a lot of ways we did. There was just a great mentality going into that game, we tackled well. I give a lot of credit to our players and the way we prepared and played that night. That’s certainly a great blueprint for us going forward on the mentality that you have to play with, I think just the momentum and really the togetherness. I think the bowl game was the most together that our football team was all of last year, and I think it showed that night.”

D’Anton Lynn wasn’t the only big-time defensive hire that Riley made, though. He also brought in Matt Entz as the assistant head coach for the defense, working with the linebackers.

Riley praised Entz quite thoroughly on Wednesday.

“Hiring Matt Entz among others on the defensive staff were certainly just as important as the defensive coordinator hire,” he said. “Matt was a little bit of an outside the box hire, but I’ve always been a fan of what those guys have done at North Dakota State, the job they’ve done developing players consistently, playing at a high level, playing very disciplined football.

“And then to be able to bring in a guy that’s been a coordinator, that’s been a head coach, I just felt like it’s going to make every part of our program better, not just our defense, not just our linebacker room. And he’s certainly done that.”

Entz arrived after spending five seasons coaching North Dakota State as the head coach. He won two Division I FCS national titles while there.

Riley raved about what that kind of experience can mean for D’Anton Lynn in the defensive staff room.

“For D’Anton to have that guy in the room, for me to be able to grab coach Entz and be able to talk about things more from a head coaching perspective has been great,” Riley said. “He’s brought some tremendous ideas in terms of development that we’ve implemented in our program. So it would be, I think, foolish of me to bring in a guy like that and not use him, not lean on him. And he’s certainly done that and he’s been a tremendous addition for our staff.”