After Friday afternoonโs practice, USC football coach Lincoln Riley said he had no update on DโAnton Lynn, who has been the target of Penn Stateโs defensive coordinator search.
Penn State showed interest in Lynn last year before he received a contract extension from USC. Lynn was hired by the Trojans after a successful season as the defensive coordinator at UCLA.
โThis is what happens this time of year, especially when you have a really good staff and are doing a lot of positive things,โ Riley said. โWeโre 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. Itโs just part of the world we live in.
โObviously, DโAnton has done a really good job here and weโll see how it turns out.โ
Being prepared for change is a must in the current college football climate, Riley said.
โContingency plans for coaches, players, staff, everyone because so much can and does change,โ Riley said. โOur job is to be prepared and have flexibility. You canโt always predict everything thatโs 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.โ
Riley has liked what he has seen in practice as USC (9-3) prepares for its Alamo Bowl matchup against Texas Christian on Dec. 30.
โWeโve done a really good job the last couple of years of going to work and weโre not thinking about what players or coaches are here or arenโt here,โ Riley said. โItโs all about trying to maximize this time and build for the future.โ
USC announced Tuesday that redshirt junior quarterback Jayden Maiava had re-signed for the upcoming season and is not joining Makai Lemon and JaโKobi Lane โ USCโs two best receivers โ in declaring for the 2026 NFL draft.
โItโs great. Anytime you can get a returning guy like that who has played a good amount of football, itโs important,โ Riley said of Maiava. โHeโs also become a good leader in this program and Iโd 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 itโs cool for those guys to show how much they believe in this place and what weโre doing.
โThe exciting thing is you look ahead and you start to imagine pairing what we have coming back with whatโs 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.โ
Maiava, one of the last players to leave the practice field Friday, made it clear why he chose to stay.
โCoach Riley,โ Maiava said. โOf course, the staff too and my brothers. Iโm super grateful to be back out here. Iโm focused on a day at a time, staying level-headed, making the right decisions and just taking care of the ball.โ
Maiava is happy for Lemon, who won the Biletnikoff Award as college footballโs top receiver after catching 79 passes for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior this season.
โIt was awesome, everybody was there in the lobby when we found out … itโs well-deserved,โ Maiava said. โHe and JaโKobi set the standard for everyone. He won the award, so Iโd 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.โ
Defensive end Braylan Shelby also is grateful to be back with the Trojans for another season.
โI always knew I wanted to be here, he said. โBowl games mean a lot and itโs a time for the team to put it all together and play together one last time.โ
Regarding the new NFL model for announcing re-signings, Shelby said: โSome people love it, some hate it. … USC is a step ahead of the game and I think itโs the right step. In this NIL era, it helps fans know whoโs returning.โ
Having re-signed, junior safety Christian Pierce is excited about being a potential starter next fall.
โThe bowl game is a huge start going into next season in terms of building the culture,โ Pierce said. โMy focus is on trying to understand the defense even more and the skills and techniques Iโll need to get better at. The talk after re-signing was more on the coaching staff and the program.โ
Riley praised offensive lineman Tobias Raymond on his willingness and ability to play multiple positions on the front line.
โHe was one of the most important players on the entire team,โ Riley said. โHis 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. Heโll 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 โ youโll be a lot closer to winning.โ
Much to his coachโs liking, Raymond has embraced his leadership role.
โIโve just tried to be more vocal, set an example and hold other people to the standard our coaches have put out for us,โ said the 6โfoot-6, 315-pound redshirt sophomore out of Ventura. โPick people up when things are low and when things are high making sure weโre keeping level-headed.โ
Regarding the transfer portal, Riley said he plans to be less reliant on it than in previous years.
โThe number weโre talking about is so much less than before, so moving forward weโll be able to zero in on what weโre going to go after. So the picture is starting to become clearer on what weโll be targeting.โ