How Will D’Anton Lynn’s Defense Respond vs. USC?

D’Anton Lynn’s Defense allowed 413 yards and four touchdowns in the 34-13 trouncing by Northwestern.  These were the highest rushing totals a D’Anton Lynn-led defense has allowed in a single game, and it came against one of his former head coaches.

Northwestern’s offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was the first to give Lynn a defensive coordinator job at the college level back when he was the head coach of UCLA in 2023. The Bruins finished 8-5 that season with a top-10 defense in the program’s final year as part of the Pac-12. Lynn’s only coaching experience up to that point involved multiple defensive assistant roles in the NFL.

“He’s got a really good blend of how to mix and match things,” Kelly said of Lynn in August 2023. “He’s been around some of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL in the last 10 or 15 years, so it’s all rubbed off, and he’s absorbed everything.”

Kelly and Lynn only worked together for the 2023 season before Lynn was offered more money to head across town to join Lincoln Riley’s staff at USC. The Trojans had one of the worst defenses in the country before Lynn’s arrival, but he was able to turn things around quickly.

USC went from having the 119th-ranked defense in 2023 to finishing 77th after Lynn first season. The defense improved once again in 2025, finishing 49th nationally.

The defensive turnaround under Lynn at his alma mater took a step back in last week’s collapse against Kelly’s offense. How will he respond against another former head coach of his in Penn State’s White Out?

One advantage Lynn should have is how recently he was at USC. Lynn was with Riley and the Trojans the last two seasons and will face many of the same players he practiced against in 2025, like quarterback Jayden Maiava and running backs King Miller and Waymond Jordan.

Conversely, Lynn is now three seasons removed from his lone year with Kelly. Since then, Kelly has been the offensive coordinator at Ohio State and for the Las Vegas Raiders.

Lynn should have more familiarity with Riley’s offense than he did with Kelly’s entering last week’s game.

“[Riley] probably has the best scheme beaters in the country,” Lynn said in his bi-weekly press conference on Tuesday. “If he knows what you’re in, there’s times when he’ll present things, and it’s like, man, you just don’t have an answer. You have to keep them guessing. You have to be good with your disguises.”

The Trojans have a top-30 offense nationally through the first five weeks, led by senior quarterback Maiava, who has 1,744 yards, 15 touchdowns, three interceptions, and is averaging 9.1 yards per completion.

“[Riley’s] tough because he doesn’t really have a playbook,” Lynn said. “He just has plays, and he’s going to do what his guys do best.”

One area Penn State’s defense has been stellar at so far has been against the pass, the area USC’s offense has excelled in. The Nittany Lions rank No. 3 in the nation in pass defense, allowing an average of 119.6 yards per game. USC’s pass offense ranks 12th with 311.7 yards per game.

This hasn’t intimidated Lynn in the past.

Lynn’s defense has bested Riley’s offense before. USC hosted UCLA in 2023, which the Bruins won 38-20. Eventual Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams passed for an eye-popping 384 yards while completing nearly 74% of his passes, but scored just one touchdown and threw an interception.

“It’s a game where I told the guys, ‘You can’t look up at the stats. They’re gonna move the ball. They’re going to have plays,'” Lynn said. “We need to be great on third down. We need to be great in the red zone, and we need to stop the run, and then don’t give them chunk plays. Make them drive all the way down the field.”

In that 2023 game, USC went 4-for-13 on third down, made five red zone appearances and scored two touchdowns, and the scoring drives went an average of nine plays.

Lynn’s defense also held USC to just three rushing yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, counting sack yards. The leading rusher was MarShawn Lloyd with eight runs for 17 yards.

All eyes will be on Lynn’s run defense on Saturday. USC doesn’t have a potent run game, averaging 156.2 yards per game (74th in FBS), but neither did Northwestern entering last week’s game. The Wildcats had the 95th-ranked run game, averaging 146 yards per game.

“I don’t know if we won the line of scrimmage once,” Lynn said. “We didn’t lose every time, but we didn’t win at all. Weweren’t getting knockback, and it was really controlling the A and the B gaps. Whether it was with our D-line, whether it was with our run fits, or whether it was missed tackles.”

The lack of physicality defensively was evident in the losses to Wisconsin and Northwestern. It’s been an emphasis in practice this week for Penn State, but it will need to translate if the Nittany Lions have any hope of taking down the No. 19-ranked Trojans.

“I would say today was the most physical practice we’ve had in a long time,” said junior linebacker Cael Brezina on Tuesday. “Just from a standpoint of what we’re doing, how we’re finishing. It’s just really important to reemphasize all those things.”

Main Photo: David Banks-Imagn Images