Skip to main content
Join Now
Get a profile. Be recruited.

D'Anton Lynn declines comment on Penn State DC opening: 'I just focus on the players'

FaceProfileby: Thomas Goldkamp9 hours ago

While the college coaching carousel has mostly stopped spinning at the head coach level, the assistant pool is still seeing a number of significant shakeups. Could USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn join that mix?

Lynn has been reported as a potential target for Penn State coach Matt Campbell in recent weeks. He addressed that noise ahead of the Valero Alamo Bowl, which will be played on Tuesday night.

“I just focus on the players,” Lynn told reporters, according to Ryan Kartje of the LA Times. “I just focus on what’s in front of me, their growth, their development and just trying to get their 10th win.”

The links between D’Anton Lynn and the Penn State job have been reported for at least a week now, as Campbell looks to round out his staff in Happy Valley. But for now, there’s been no real movement on that front.

Even USC head coach Lincoln Riley has seen the rumors come across his desk. To the point that he addressed them last week.

“No, I don’t have an update,” Riley said of D’Anton Lynn. “This is just what happens this time of year, especially when you have a really good staff, and are doing a lot of really positive things. This is part of what happens. So, we’ve seen it, we understand it. We’ll obviously see how it plays out.”

The Penn State coaching staff is getting a major shakeup this season after James Franklin was fired midseason and eventually replaced by Campbell. Now, Campbell is trying to put his stamp on the program’s staff and replace Jim Knowles, who left for a job at Tennessee. If the replacement does turn out to be D’Anton Lynn, it would likely send ripples through the Big Ten.

Considered an up and coming coach, Lynn played defensive back at Penn State from 2008 through 2011. Those were the final years of the Joe Paterno era. By 2014, Lynn got into coaching as an NFL assistant. Then, in 2023, he made the jump to coaching as the defensive coordinator at UCLA and later USC.

On3’s Dan Morrison also contributed to this report.