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Penn State Alum D’Anton Lynn Returning to Happy Valley as Matt Campbell’s Defensive Coordinator
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Matt Campbell continues to build his staff at Penn State. Reported by Pete Thamel and a dozen other insiders:
Lynn is 36 years old and Anthony Lynn’s son. He played corner at PSU from 2008 to 2011, which were Joe Paterno’s last four seasons. The Lions won 38 games during that stretch with two top ten finishes and a Rose Bowl appearance, and he was named three times as an honorable mention for the All-Big 10 team.
He went undrafted in 2012, spent some time with the Jets, then in the CFL, before making jumping into coaching with the Jets, Bills, Chargers, and Ravens. He left his job as Baltimore safeties coach in 2023 to become Chip Kelly’s defensive coordinator at UCLA. Lynn left at the end of the year for Southern Cal and spent the last two years on Lincoln Riley’s staff.
UCLA’s defense was woeful before Lynn took over. They were ranked 90th in points allowed per game, 29 on average, then jumped all the way to 14th, conceding just 18.4 in his first season. Same deal at USC. The Trojans were giving up 34.4 points per game when he got there, and that number improved to 24.1 in year one and 22.4 in year two. They finished 9-3 with losses to Illinois, Notre Dame, and Oregon.
Feels like a good hire on paper, but the expectations are high, and he knows it. He played under Tom Bradley and follows guys like Tom Allen, Manny Diaz, and Brent Pry.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com