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 his 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.