{"id":459377,"date":"2025-12-20T05:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T05:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/459377\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T05:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T05:37:13","slug":"lincoln-riley-talks-up-contingency-plans-as-penn-state-targets-danton-lynn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/459377\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln Riley talks up contingency plans as Penn State targets D’Anton Lynn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After Friday afternoon\u2019s practice, USC football coach Lincoln Riley<\/a> said he had no update on D\u2019Anton Lynn<\/a>, who has been the target of Penn State\u2019s defensive coordinator search.<\/p>\n

Penn State showed interest in Lynn last year before he received a contract extension from USC<\/a>. Lynn was hired by the Trojans after a successful season as the defensive coordinator at UCLA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what happens this time of year, especially when you have a really good staff and are doing a lot of positive things,\u201d Riley said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited about having the opportunity to keep continuity but if there is turnover, not just with that position but any position, these are coveted jobs. It\u2019s just part of the world we live in. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, D\u2019Anton has done a really good job here and we\u2019ll see how it turns out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being prepared for change is a must in the current college football climate, Riley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cContingency plans for coaches, players, staff, everyone because so much can and does change,\u201d Riley said. \u201cOur job is to be prepared and have flexibility. You can\u2019t always predict everything that\u2019s going to happen but you have to be ready to adjust. Yeah, every team goes through it on some level and you try to handle it as well as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley has liked what he has seen in practice as USC (9-3) prepares for its Alamo Bowl matchup<\/a> against Texas Christian on Dec. 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done a really good job the last couple of years of going to work and we\u2019re not thinking about what players or coaches are here or aren\u2019t here,\u201d Riley said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about trying to maximize this time and build for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

USC announced Tuesday that redshirt junior quarterback Jayden Maiava<\/a> had re-signed for the upcoming season and is not joining Makai Lemon<\/a> and Ja\u2019Kobi Lane<\/a> \u2014 USC\u2019s two best receivers \u2014 in declaring for the 2026 NFL draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great. Anytime you can get a returning guy like that who has played a good amount of football, it\u2019s important,\u201d Riley said of Maiava. \u201cHe\u2019s also become a good leader in this program and I\u2019d expect that to continue to improve. The majority of this team has already re-signed, we know those guys are going to be here and it\u2019s cool for those guys to show how much they believe in this place and what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exciting thing is you look ahead and you start to imagine pairing what we have coming back with what\u2019s going to be walking through the door here in three weeks or so, but it starts with your veterans who have been through the fire and we have a lot of them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maiava, one of the last players to leave the practice field Friday, made it clear why he chose to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Riley,\u201d Maiava said. \u201cOf course, the staff too and my brothers. I\u2019m super grateful to be back out here. I\u2019m focused on a day at a time, staying level-headed, making the right decisions and just taking care of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maiava is happy for Lemon, who won the Biletnikoff Award as college football\u2019s top receiver after catching 79 passes for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome, everybody was there in the lobby when we found out … it\u2019s well-deserved,\u201d Maiava said. \u201cHe and Ja\u2019Kobi set the standard for everyone. He won the award, so I\u2019d say we had pretty good chemistry even off the field going out to eat and places. I had to do my job, but he did his job, too, as best he could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defensive end Braylan Shelby also is grateful to be back with the Trojans for another season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew I wanted to be here, he said. \u201cBowl games mean a lot and it\u2019s a time for the team to put it all together and play together one last time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the new NFL model for announcing re-signings, Shelby said: \u201cSome people love it, some hate it. … USC is a step ahead of the game and I think it\u2019s the right step. In this NIL era, it helps fans know who\u2019s returning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having re-signed, junior safety Christian Pierce is excited about being a potential starter next fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bowl game is a huge start going into next season in terms of building the culture,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cMy focus is on trying to understand the defense even more and the skills and techniques I\u2019ll need to get better at. The talk after re-signing was more on the coaching staff and the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley praised offensive lineman Tobias Raymond on his willingness and ability to play multiple positions on the front line.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was one of the most important players on the entire team,\u201d Riley said. \u201cHis toughness was off the charts, his versatility with all the different lineups we played, being able to physically and mentally handle that. He was just a steadying presence. He\u2019ll be a huge key coming back as a captain, a leader and a player. As many of those guys as you can have in a locker room \u2014 you\u2019ll be a lot closer to winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much to his coach\u2019s liking, Raymond has embraced his leadership role.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just tried to be more vocal, set an example and hold other people to the standard our coaches have put out for us,\u201d said the 6\u2013foot-6, 315-pound redshirt sophomore out of Ventura. \u201cPick people up when things are low and when things are high making sure we\u2019re keeping level-headed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the transfer portal, Riley said he plans to be less reliant on it than in previous years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number we\u2019re talking about is so much less than before, so moving forward we\u2019ll be able to zero in on what we\u2019re going to go after. So the picture is starting to become clearer on what we\u2019ll be targeting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Friday afternoon\u2019s practice, USC football coach Lincoln Riley said he had no update on D\u2019Anton Lynn, who…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":459378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,4160,209841,115286,209842,2961,60839,224,5337,7088,105648,5835,9323,6130,5950,6831,3007,6620,11016],"class_list":{"0":"post-459377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-coach","11":"tag-coveted-job","12":"tag-danton-lynn","13":"tag-defensive-coordinator-search","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-lincoln-riley","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-lot","19":"tag-maiava","20":"tag-penn-state","21":"tag-player","22":"tag-position","23":"tag-season","24":"tag-staff","25":"tag-team","26":"tag-time","27":"tag-usc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115750282660280706","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}