LOS ANGELES — USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn dispelled any rumors of him becoming UCLA’s next head coach when he spoke with reporters on Wednesday evening after practice.
Lynn, who spent the 2023 season as UCLA’s defensive coordinator, said that he has not been contacted by UCLA and has not considered the position.
“My mind is just on Michigan State,” Lynn said of the Trojans’ opponent this weekend. “We have a lot of stuff on defense we need to clean up and improve on, so that’s where all my focus is right now.”
UCLA fired head coach DeShaun Foster on Sunday morning after the Bruins lost two straight games to Mountain West Conference teams as part of an 0-3 start. UCLA also announced a mutual departure with defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe on Wednesday.
Tim Skipper is serving as interim head coach as UCLA searches for its next coach, and rumors pointing to Lynn as an option quickly circulated.
Lynn, who is in his second season as USC’s defensive coordinator, previously was on Chip Kelly’s coaching staff in the same role and completely revamped the Bruins’ defense.
Lynn, who helped USC’s defense turn a corner in his first season, signed a contract extension with USC in January that made him one of the highest-paid assistants in college football after Penn State, his alma mater, pursued him for its open defensive coordinator job.
Although he ruled out coaching at UCLA again, becoming a head coach someday is still a possibility.
“I think everyone who gets into coaching wants to at some point,” said Lynn, who has spent years as an NFL assistant coach as well. “But it’s a long process, and there’s so much in front of your face that if you stop paying attention, bad things happen.”
RAMSEY CONTINUES TO PROVE HIS WORTH
Kamari Ramsey was given the green dot, which designates an in-helmet communication device to a player on defense, for Saturday’s game against Purdue. Middle linebacker Desman Stephens II had previously handled primary communication duties.
“He had it for part of this past year,” Lynn said, “and we just felt like going back to the routine that we had this past year, letting him handle everything on the back end and letting the mike still get the signal from the sideline. He’s still in charge of everything up front.”
Ramsey, who has been an important part of the defense since his arrival, said the switch happened during a practice leading up to the Purdue game and there was little change in what he did in-game.
“The safeties in our defense, we make a lot of the coverage checks,” he told reporters. “So we have to talk. If you don’t want to talk, you can’t play in this defense.”
The redshirt junior has four total tackles in three games and half a tackle for loss as he has moved through a role change in the secondary.
Ramsey has been valuable high up in the secondary at safety in the past but this season is primarily playing at the nickel position.
“At nickel there’s a little bit more space,” Ramsey said. “You gotta go inside or outside or go vertical. There’s a lot that you could do. Usually the offense has the quicker guys in the slot, too, so that’s probably the biggest thing, but you are closer to the ’backers, so you have more inside holes.”
Although Ramsey might not be at the top of the statistical charts, he’s still making an impact in games. He and defensive tackle Devan Tompkins made the initial contact on Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne to force an interception that Jamaal Jarrett returned for a touchdown.
“Playing nickel is a very hard position,” Lynn said. “We play man(-to-man), we play spot drop zone, we play pattern map zone. We let him blitz and having him in the slot, he takes that part of the field away. There’s times when it might not show up on the stat sheet all the time, but if you watch the tape, he’s playing outstanding now.”
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