USC has added Rob Ryan to the staff

Update >> USC has formally announced the hire. He will be assistant head coach for defense / linebackers coach.

The Ryan name is fairly synonymous with the NFL.

Buddy. Rex. Rob.

They've all had their moments.

And though Rex Ryan recently interviewed for the vacant New York Jets job, it's Rob Ryan who's close to landing a new position, sources tell FootballScoop.

With the linebackers coaching post open on his Southern Cal staff since Matt Entz departed to take over at Fresno State, Lincoln Riley and heralded defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn are working to add longtime NFL veteran Rob Ryan to coach the Trojans linebackers, FootballScoop has learned.

Most recently, Rob Ryan has been a special defensive assistant for the Las Vegas Raiders, a position he's held since 2022.

The Raiders, like the Jets, are in a coaching search after the recent firing of Antonio Pierce.

But Lynn and Ryan have a long history and have remained in close contact through the years, sources told FootballScoop. They previously worked together for the Buffalo Bills, where Ryan was assistant head coach for the defense and Lynn was a defensive assistant.

They later reunited with the Baltimore Ravens in 2021, when Ryan was an inside linebackers coach and Lynn worked with the safeties.

For Ryan, it's a potential return to his coaching roots -- but a scene for which he has not been a part this century.

Rob Ryan last coached at the collegiate level as Oklahoma State's defensive coordinator from 1997-99.

He's had nine different NFL stops for eight different franchises since that time; he's been the defensive coordinator the Oakland Raiders, Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys.

Ryan's early collegiate experience included graduate assistant stints at Western Kentucky and Ohio State, stops that preceded a lengthy run in Nashville at Tennessee State.