UCLA Football: Chip Kelly Suggests Bruins Cheaped Out On D'Anton Lynn

In one short year, 34-year-old D'Anton Lynn went from a young NFL assistant coach to being one of College Football's most respected defensive coordinators.

Chip Kelly recognized Lynn's prowess from his time with the Baltimore Ravens. As such, Kelly hired him to be a coordinator for the first time in his career with the UCLA Bruins. With virtually the same personnel as the year before, Lynn transformed UCLA from a below-average defense into one of the best in the country.

The run defense was among the most effective in all of college football, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a better unit in terms of getting pressure on the opposing quarterback.

Chip Kelly on losing DC D'Anton Lynn to USC: "We made a push to keep D’Anton, obviously we weren’t in the ballpark from that standpoint, but I think D’Anton is a tremendous young football coach. USC wasn’t the only team that was courting him."
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) December 3, 2023

With the relative volatility clumping up around UCLA's football program, it was only a matter of time until another opportunity presented itself. In this case -- much to the chagrin of UCLA fans everywhere -- it came via the USC Trojans. Lynn left Westwood in favor of a new challenge with Lincoln Riley.

Lynn made $1.02 million this past year with the Bruins. Reportedly, his salary with USC has doubled. Per The Los Angeles Times' Ben Bolch Kelly expanded upon the somber reality of why UCLA couldn't keep Lynn from leaving.

When your head coach admits that the team wasn't 'in the ballpark' from a salary standpoint, that's a real issue. It's even worse when one of the brightest young coaches in the sport heads across town to your hated rival.

Warm welcome pic.twitter.com/EV6kZXtUzb
— Ja'Kobi Lane (@cantGuardJak1) December 3, 2023

It remains to be seen as to where UCLA will go from here. With NIL funds to fill out the roster already a major question mark, one must wonder what the assistant coach salary pool will look like.

Lynn wasn't the only coach to leave UCLA in the offseason thus far. Quarterback coach Ryan Gunderson was recently hired to be the offensive coordinator for Oregon State.

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