USC Football Defensive Coach Says He’ll Be A Trojan For The Rest Of His Career

The USC football defensive staff has seen a lot of overhaul in recent years. But perhaps the most high-profile move for the Trojans this past offseason was hiring Rob Ryan to be linebackers coach. 

Ryan, 62, has had a long coaching career throughout the college football and NFL ranks. It was sort of a shock to the football world to see him come back to college and be a position coach. 

As it turns out, the decision to come to USC shocked even Ryan himself. 

Ryan opened up about his move to USC in a recent interview with Paolo Ugetti of ESPN. 

“I can remember parking the car here [at USC] and walking up,” Ryan told Ugetti. “I thought, ‘Man, there’s no way I’m ever going to take this job.’”

But ever since joining the USC staff, Ryan has fallen in love with being a Trojan. His twin brother Rex, also a longtime coach, said he doesn’t think Rob will ever leave USC. 

“He will probably be there 10 years, he loves to coach that much,” Rex said. “He’ll be a guy they’ll have to drag his ass off the football field.”

Rob also confirmed that to Ugetti. 

“This is it for us,” Rob Ryan said, referring to himself and his wife. “This is our last move until we walk off in the sunset.” 

Ryan’s First Two Games At USC

Ryan has inherited a linebacker position group at USC with a lot of uncertainty behind superstar Eric Gentry. 

So far, the Trojans’ defensive performance has been uneven, and the linebackers are right in the middle of that. 

Unsurprisingly, Gentry is leading the team in tackles by a wide margin. He has 13 in the Trojans’ first two games, all solo tackles and he’s also picked up a sack. That’s nearly double the total of USC’s second leading solo tackler, Bishop Fitzgerald, who has 7 solo tackles. Fitzgerald has 10 total tackles on the year. 

USC’s other starting linebacker, Desman Stephens II, has put on an uneven performance to start the season. So, questions still swirl about who will step up as the #2 linebacker opposite Gentry. 

One bright spot for that position group and Ryan’s coaching has been the flashes shown by some of USC’s younger linebackers. Elijah Newby and Jadyn Walker have both shown immense talent in the first two games and could develop into stars. 

Ryan Tells Epic Stories 

Also in the article, Ryan told some epic stories about his lengthy coaching career. 

For instance, USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, who just hired Ryan at USC, lived at Ryan’s house for a few months when they were on the same coaching staff with the Baltimore Ravens in 2021. 

“We go way back,” Ryan said about Lynn. “He’s an old roommate.”

He also talked about shutting down Heisman trophy winner Ricky Williams when he was a defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State. 

“Over the course of the 1997 and 1998 seasons, Williams had only four games where he didn’t rush for over 100 yards — two of them were against Ryan’s OSU defense,” Ugetti wrote. 

The stories Ryan tells are something that has endeared him to the linebackers he coaches. 

“He’ll just have a story for us, just a random story, every day, he’ll have us dying laughing,” redshirt sophomore linebacker Garrison Madden said. “It may be something that happened a week ago or something 20 years ago.” 

What do you think of Rob Ryan, Trojan fans? Do you hope USC keeps him around until he retires? 

Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.

This article was originally published on Heavy Sports

The post USC Football Defensive Coach Says He’ll Be A Trojan For The Rest Of His Career appeared first on Heavy Sports.