Between the coaching carousel and the transfer portal, it’s hard to keep track of everyone’s comings and goings around the world of college football this time of year.
Still, it’s always good to exactly where coaching staffs stand before going on live television to push for a coach at one program to hire a coach away from another program.
During Saturday night’s Big Ten Championship Game between Michigan and Iowa, the stout Hawkeyes defense was keeping the team in the game despite the Wolverines being the more talented squad.
Fox announcers Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt heaped praise on Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker, with Johnson even going so far as to suggest USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley should show up in Iowa City with a truck full of money to get Parker to join him in Los Angeles.
“I don’t understand why a guy like Lincoln Riley, who needs a defensive coordinator, doesn’t call Phil Parker, the defensive coordinator at Iowa, and just literally bring a Brink’s truck and back it up at his house in Iowa City,” said Johnson.
Ethical concerns about an announcer clamoring for one school to hire away another school’s coach aside, there’s one fatal flaw in Johnson’s query. USC already has a new defensive coordinator.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel broke the news Friday that USC was poaching defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn away from crosstown rival UCLA.
Sources: USC is finalizing a deal to hire UCLA defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn. UCLA finished No. 11 in total defense in his first year there this season, an improvement from No. 89 the year before. pic.twitter.com/habw0PtNgg
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 2, 2023
And it sure sounds like they’ve already backed up the Brink’s truck in Lynn’s direction, bumping his salary from $1 million to $2 million, per Fox’s Bruce Feldman.
So we suppose Gus was right to wonder why USC and Riley wouldn’t pull out all the stops to get the guy they want. What he missed was the fact that they already did.
