After starting his reign of Troy at 11-1, Lincoln Riley seemed to have kicked off the revival of the Trojan dynasty. However, the Trojans are 7-7 in the 14 games since, and the once burgeoning Trojan empire has fallen back to similar mediocrity that Clay Helton achieved.
In defense of Helton, he never presided over defenses as inept as Riley’s. The former Oklahoma coach has presided over the two worst defenses by points allowed in program history, the only two defenses to allow over 400 points in a season, with this season being a program worst, surrendering 34.9 points per game (125th in the nation).
Following their loss to UCLA, Riley characterized the 2023 season as “Extremely disappointing to finish this way with obviously how well we started the season. Our guys are disappointed. Coaches are disappointed. I’m disappointed. Our fans are disappointed. They should be. There are no excuses. It’s below what we expect here. It’s below the standard. I have to do a much better job. I own all that. I’m going to fight my ass off in every single way to make sure this thing gets to where it’s supposed to be.”
The Trojan program, in the eyes of its fans, boosters, and alumni, is supposed to be at or near the top of the nation. That is what Southern California is paying Riley $110 million to do: make the CFP, not the Holiday Bowl.
Throughout this fallout, Riley has managed to maintain commitments of Top 10 edge rusher Kameryn Fountain (Booker T. Washington HS – Atlanta, GA) and Top 20 linebacker Elijah Newby (Cheshire Academy – Cheshire, CT), and they may have been rewarded by the coaching hires Riley secured on defense.
Replacing the much-maligned Alex Grinch at defensive coordinator is former UCLA defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.
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Lynn is seen in the industry as a fast-rising defensive coach, spending nearly a decade in the NFL (2014-2022) coaching defense with an emphasis on the secondary. Lynn coached All-Pro/Pro Bowl talent like Desmond King, Tyrann Mathieu, Marcus Peters, and Marlon Humphrey. After leaving Baltimore Ravens for the defensive coordinator position at UCLA for 2023, Lynn helped mold edge rusher Laiatu Latu’s Lombardi Award-winning season and guided UCLA to a Top 15 scoring defense, sacks, turnovers, and total defense.
If the Lynn hire wasn’t shocking enough, Riley sent shockwaves when he was able to lure North Dakota State head coach Matt Entz to Troy, becoming the team’s assistant head coach of defense and linebackers coach.
Entz led the FCS North Dakota State Bison to two National Championships with an overall record of 60-10. During his time at the Fargodome, Entz developed six players for the NFL Draft – notably quarterback Trey Lance, who went No. 3 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, and defenses that surrendered 16.3 points per game between 2019-2023.
“Just an opportunity for me to continue to grow and develop. I wouldn’t leave NDSU for just anything. I’ve had other opportunities along the way, and they just didn’t maybe spark my interest or the timing wasn’t right. This was a unique opportunity for me and my wife,”
— Matt Entz on his decision to leave the North Dakota State head coaching job for Southern California.
Entz continued to explain why he was willing to take a demotion from FCS head coach to FBS assistant coach, “I have head coaching experience … but to be transparent, I’ve had some people tell me, ‘Well, you don’t have FBS recruiting experience, you haven’t really dove into NIL,’ those have been marks against me, if you will. I saw this as an opportunity to continue to further and broaden my circle of people. Still gonna have some relevance here in the Midwest, which is comforting, and hopefully this will lead to some other opportunities.”
Riley wasn’t done with Lynn and Entz; he also landed former Houston Cougars defensive coordinator Doug Belk, who has been a trendy pick to become a head coach at the Power 5 level.
Belk guided the Houston Cougars’ defense in 2021 to 14th in fewest yards per play allowed, number seven in red zone touchdown percentage, and they led the nation in third-down defense that guided Houston to a 12-2 record. Belk followed up his spectacular 2021 campaign with the No. 11 overall defense in 2022.
In Belk’s five seasons as defensive coordinator at Houston, Belk developed a culture around the defense that was dubbed the “Third Ward Defense,” and the success included 13 All-American Athletic Conference honorees, eight All-Big 12 Conference honorees, including 2 First Team selections. Five players from Belk’s defenses have been selected in the NFL Draft, including two defensive linemen in Payton Turner and Logan Hall.
For many in the Trojan community, the new coaching hires are seen as potential transformative hires, similar to what legendary Trojan defensive line coaches Marv Goux and Ed Orgeron had on the program, who helped create dynasties for John McKay, John Robinson, and Pete Carroll.
Both Lynn and Entz have Big Ten pedigree, as North Dakota State played a style of defense akin to many physical Big Ten defenses in the Missouri Valley Conference, and Lynn, who is a Penn State alum and was a three-time honorable mention to the All-Big Ten team. Belk brings in a championship pedigree, having served on two national championship-winning staffs: one at Division II Valdosta State and at Alabama under Nick Saban.
Together, they inherit one of the strongest recruiting efforts Riley has ever invested in defensive-wise. If you include the 247 Sports four-star defensive line transfer Nate Clifton, 247’s Class Score for the defense is 168.53. This is still a far cry from SEC national powers Georgia (253.85), Alabama (199.42 – if five-star athlete Jaylen Mbakwe plays defense: 218.07), also with current and future Big Ten foes in Oregon (239.24), Michigan (199.89), Penn State (196.71), and Ohio State (184.70) for the Class of 2024.
The emphasis on the defensive line in the transfer portal the last two cycles – landing a trio of four-star defensive linemen in Anthony Lucas and Bear Alexander last cycle, Nate Clifton this cycle, and landing a Top 10 edge rusher out of the middle of SEC country is demonstrating Riley is serious about defense preparing for the physical lines that the Big Ten possesses.
With the resumes that all three hires possess, the inevitable next step for both men is to be a head coach. Entz’s words are more poignant to that fact, but the time they serve on Riley’s staff will be an education on what an elite defensive operation looks like – something Riley has never seen in his career between Oklahoma and Southern California. As L.A. Times writer Bill Plaschke wrote following the UCLA debacle, the honeymoon is over for Riley.
Riley knows it, and his actions since acknowledging that fact has shown Riley is getting serious about defense.
