LOS ANGELES — It began with seven names on a whiteboard.
Staff had rolled it into Lincoln Riley’s office at USC this winter, for a brainstorming session that could one day become legend if Riley’s penultimate plans for this program pay off. They had no defensive coordinator, firing Alex Grinch midseason after an ultimately ineffective two seasons next to Riley, left with shards of a doomed philosophy. Riley had repeatedly promised improvement, but those words were hollow without any changes.
So they sat down, Riley reflected Thursday, and scribbled down a list of names of potential defensive hires on that whiteboard. The dream list, as Riley put it. If they could get anyone. They landed on seven names.
They ended up hiring four of them, Riley said.
“I think we have a staff right now that takes a backseat to no one, period,” Riley said Thursday, addressing a room of media in USC’s John McKay Center.
And then he doubled down.
“I believe no one in football, not just college football,” USC’s head coach continued. “And that was kinda the goal.”
D’Anton Lynn. Eric Henderson. Matt Entz. Doug Belk. The world may never know the three other names on the dream list, but the eventual reality positions USC’s staff with a wealth of NFL and collegiate-coordinator experience, an eclectic mix of personalities and schematic backgrounds who’ve come together in one common goal: embracing the challenge of restoring USC to defensive glory.
And in wide-ranging one-on-one media sessions Thursday, each staffer’s first time speaking in person since arriving at USC, each specifically mentioned being drawn to the program in large part because of Riley’s vision.
“I think, we have to change the narrative,” said Belk, the secondary coach and former Houston defensive coordinator .”Everybody in the world knows what Coach Riley has been able to do with quarterbacks … and I think our energy has to be, that we have to match that. We have to set the…
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