Some time after news broke that Domani Jackson had hit the transfer portal, the noise from Oklahoma picked up again. “Unraveling” was a word that was used to describe the current state of the USC program. Lincoln Riley is losing it in Los Angeles? If you say so.

A month ago, USC dropped its fifth game in six tries to close a once-promising season at 7-5. Two weeks prior, the team had fired its defensive coordinator in the aftermath of a 52-point showing at home. When the Trojans lost to UCLA inside the Coliseum 38-20 and brought the season average to 34.9 points allowed per game, it ensured the defense would go down in program history as the worst of all time.

USC unraveled over the last six weeks of the 2023 football season. What Lincoln Riley has done in the month since has been quite the opposite, actually. Since the regular season ended, Riley hasn’t put a foot wrong in trying to rebuild this defense. You might even say that, for the first time in his USC tenure, this all looks promising.

When USC announced during the Pac-12 Championship Game that D’Anton Lynn was coming over from UCLA to be the Trojans’ next coordinator, eyes rolled. USC can’t help but be the center of attention. That was fair. (And funny.)

It was also fitting.

USC expected to be playing in that game. The Trojans built a bye into their schedule the week before the Pac-12 title game for that exact reason. Instead of preparing for it, Riley was getting skewered by national pundits like Paul Finebaum.

Lynn is a big-time hire. The kind of guy that can be the difference between playing in that game and sending out press releases when it starts to try and steal some of the spotlight.

Lynn should have been UCLA’s next head man. Instead, USC priced the baby Bruins out of the conversation to get Riley the guy he wanted.

Lynn unleashed edge rusher Laiatu Latu and coordinated a UCLA defense that was among the toughest in the country at the point of attack. The Bruins went from 42nd in run efficiency defense to third under Lynn. At USC, the issue throughout Riley’s tenure has been tenacity and size at the line of scrimmage. It was obvious before Riley’s first season. It was obvious before Riley’s second season. And it was obvious when Lynn arrived.

Lynn said after taking the USC job. “The Big Ten has big bodies on the offensive and defensive line and that’s something that we need, to get bigger up front.”

Riley called the size and style of the front seven a “non-negotiable” in his search for USC’s next DC. That’s good. It needed to be. Lynn seems to know that.

But rather than rest, Riley and Lynn continued to make necessary moves.

They brought a sitting head coach from a very good FCS program to town to be a position coach. The guy Matt Entz replaced at North Dakota State left because he was offered a Power Five head job. That’s the power of NDSU. And Riley got Entz to L.A. to be an assistant. That’s impressive.

And they also brought former Houston defensive coordinator Doug Belk to town to replace Donte Williams as the defensive backs coach. Williams was a fabulous recruiter, but the jury is still out on the other aspects of the job. Belk has called plays and turned around a defense.

“With the three hires that we’ve made up to this point, I think if anyone was going to say those were gonna be the three guys you’re gonna get and you’re gonna get them all on one staff, I don’t think anybody would have believed you,” Riley said.

USC added three guys who could be a coordinator, and it doesn’t even appear to be done.

When you have a defense that ranks as horrifically as USC’s does — 123rd in scoring, 110th against the run, 96th against the pass, 108th on third downs, 124th in the red zone, and… well, you get the picture — there is no such thing as a bad departure.

Sounds harsh.

Truth hurts.

If you’re bad enough to get a coordinator fired, change can’t stop at the coordinator position. The players have to hold some responsibility as well. And USC’s on-field personnel didn’t get it done this season.

Jackson was a 5-star recruit. He did not play like a 5-star college football player during his time as a starter. At the Power Five level, there were 128 corners who played at least 500 snaps this season. Jackson had the 10th-worst defensive grade among them from Pro Football Focus.

Tackett Curtis was a fan favorite before the season. A 4-star 2023 signee nicknamed Captain America in camp, Curtis started the first eight games before being benched and eventually hitting the transfer portal. According to PFF, 172 Power Five linebackers played at least 300 snaps this season. Curtis had the fifth-worst defensive grade among them.

Both players are young and young defenders make mistakes. At a new school, they could absolutely learn, grow, and turn into outstanding players. I’ve seen plenty who were written off only to bounce back and prove everyone wrong. It happens.

And if it does away from USC, I suspect USC fans will appreciate their efforts.

But their departures don’t signal some impending doom in Los Angeles.

Not when the transfer portal is what it is and a new set of defensive coaches will want to put their own vision in place.

“We’re going to move on with those that are dying to be USC Trojans because at the end of the day, that’s the only way the history here turns around,” Riley said. “That’s the only way that some of the struggles in this program over the last 15 years turn around is going to be with people that are dying to be here and that are passionate about this place. Because if not, you’re going to have this kind of constant back and forth, sometimes in and sometimes not in and, a lot of times, there’s where mediocrity comes from. So we’re identifying the ones that want to be here, that want to do it, and the ones that don’t, we certainly wish them the best.”

Riley’s track record makes it reasonable to doubt this will work. After a disappointing Year 2 in L.A., he faces a crucial point in his career as a head coach. People are seriously doubting him as a program leader. More than a few pointed to ego as a barrier to fixing the defense.

A guy who actually believes that USC defense is close to good enough doesn’t go out and make the hires Riley made. Part of this is just simply trusting men like Lynn and Entz.

I trust Lynn, whose defense was everything USC’s wasn’t in the ways that matter. And I trust Entz.

We’ll see what happens in the transfer portal. Akili Arnold and Easton Mascarenas-Arnold were big additions. They come from strong defensive environments. USC needs more of that. And what can Lynn do with a guy like Anthony Lucas?

“New coordinator, new vision, new philosophy, everything on that side of the ball (is different),” Riley said.

This whole thing is still very much a work in progress.

USC, however, is putting in real work. And that’s encouraging.

“They are passionate about playing elite defense here at SC,” Lynn said, “by any means necessary.”