Lincoln Riley shares importance of hiring Matt Entz from North Dakota State

Lincoln Riley has already been reaping the benefits of hiring Matt Entz as assistant coach to the USC staff this offseason. Entz joined the Trojans as a linebackers coach after spending the past 10 seasons at North Dakota State, including the past five as head coach.

He led the Bison to a 60-11 record in that span, including FCS Championships in 2019 and 2021. NDSU has been among the most successful programs in the FCS across the past decade, and now Entz will look to bring that knowledge to a USC team that struggled heavily on defense last year.

The Trojans ranked 119th in total defense and 121st in scoring defense this past season and hired a new defensive coordinator as well in D’Anton Lynn. The hope is that those changes will lead to improvement coming off of an 8-5 season.

“Hiring Matt Entz among others on the defensive staff were certainly just as important as the defensive coordinator hire,” Riley said at Big Ten Media Days. “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.

“Then the ability 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 was the defensive coordinator at North Dakota State prior to becoming the head coach. The Bison were No. 18 in scoring defense this past season and routinely had some of the best units in the country under his direction.

His defensive prowess combined with the head coaching experience he has makes him a unique member of the staff. Riley has even come to learn a little bit from him during the short time the two have been working together.

“For me to be able to grab Coach Entz and talk about things more from a head coaching perspective has been great,” he 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 and not lean on him. We certainly have done that, and he’s been just a tremendous addition to our staff.”

Riley is preparing to enter his third season at USC, which will also mark a move to the Big Ten for the Trojans. Although his offense has been elite during that time, the hope is that Entz and Lynn will provide new life for a defense that was in clear need of adjustment.

USC kicks off the 2024 season on Sept. 1 against LSU.