REPORT: Penn State Expected to Hire D’Anton Lynn as Defensive Coordinator

Ever since Jim Knowles left to take the defensive coordinator job at Tennessee, one name seemed to be garnering the most juice as to who would take over the vacant spot in Happy Valley: D’Anton Lynn. According to the Centre Daily Times’ Jon Sauber, the current USC defensive coordinator and former Nittany Lion player is close to reaching a deal for the same position at his alma mater (see tweet above).

At a recent press conference for the Alamo Bowl in which USC will play TCU tomorrow night, Lynn declined comment when asked about rumors between him and PSU, using the standard coach-speak of focusing on the players and what’s in front of him. Barring a Crumbl Cookies CEO swooping in at the last second type of collapse in negotiations, tomorrow night will be Lynn’s last game as the Trojan’s D-coordinator.

Lynn was a former defensive back for Penn State from 2008-2011 and went on to play a couple of seasons professionally in the NFL and CFL before embarking on his coaching career, which was mostly through the NFL as a defensive assistant and later safeties coach. Lynn moved on to the college ranks in 2023 as UCLA’s defensive coordinator, where he turned the Bruins’ defense around into a borderline-Top 10 unit before being scooped up by crosstown rival USC, where he has also vastly improved what was a frankly a god-awful Trojan defense before his arrival, turning them from a team giving up over 34 points per game (near the bottom of college football) all the way down to 24 ppg.

While Lynn should be inheriting a healthier defensive unit than he did at USC, he will still have a great opportunity to clean things up in terms of creating more turnovers, limiting explosive pass plays, and not allow opposing mobile quarterbacks to repeatedly gash them for huge chunks of yardage.