A former Penn State player who many wanted to be the school’s next defensive coordinator is staying with his current employer.
Thursday night, Pete Thamel of ESPN reported that D’Anton Lynn has agreed to an extension with USC.
Sources: USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn has agreed to a contract extension to remain at USC. He’s received coordinator interest in this coaching cycle. pic.twitter.com/F3uW6nPTYw
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 17, 2025
This narrows down Penn State’s defensive coordinator search.
At 35, Lynn is an up and comer, but he already has plenty of polish. Lynn was UCLA’s DC in 2023. He did well enough there to go to LA’s more prominent program the next year. In 2024, USC had the 56th-ranked scoring defense and the 77th total defense. That doesn’t seem great. But compared to 2023, when it ranked 121st in scoring defense and 119th in total defense (out of 133 FBS teams), it was much-improved. Lynn is a rising star who still doesn’t have a ton on his resume relative to guys like Manny Diaz and Tom Allen, who were Penn State’s last two defensive coordinators.
THE CLASSIC FLIGHT TRACKER
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.As with every college coaching search, Penn State fans payed attention to flight trackers. In this case, the flight tracker showed a flight going from California to State College. Although it’s not confirmed whether Lynn and PSU head coach James Franklin had an in-person interview, that seems to be a good indicator that it happened. Thamel also tweeted that Lynn “received coordinator interest in the coaching cycle.”
SO WHO WILL PENN STATE HIRE?
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now
So who will Penn State hire? Well, the obvious choice among in-house names is safeties coach/co-defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter, who many Penn State fans are pushing for. Of the people on the outside, a name that’s picking up traction is Ephraim Banda, who NSN confirmed earlier this week has interviewed for the position. Banda is the current safeties coach for the Cleveland Browns and previously worked with Diaz at three schools between 2012-20.
Penn State opens the 2025 season Aug. 30 against Nevada at Beaver Stadium.
