D'Anton Lynn is certainly doing a nice job at USC but before we annoint D'Anton Lynn the next coming of Buddy Ryan, it is informative to learn how he got to his present position. That would be due a great deal to who he's related to and being in the right place at the right time.
There is nothing in his pre-UCLA resume that would suggest he was anything more than a young coach with good bloodlines. He got his first three jobs with the Jets, Bills and Chargers because his father was either the assistant head coach or head coach of those teams. When Daddy got fired from the Chargers, D'Anton was hired by the Texans as assistant defensive backs coach. After two seasons he was promoted to defensive backs coach. In those three seasons, Houston never finished higher than #23 in pass defense. Then he went to Baltimore in the same position. They finished last in pass defense his first season and #23 his second. When he left for UCLA the next year, they were 6th.
At UCLA, he took over a defense that was very good the previous year until DC Bill McGovern hd to step aside halfway through the season due to health problems. So their defensive rankings that season weren't as good as they could have been. In Lynn's one season here, he inherited a half dozen outstanding defensive players including arguably the best one in the nation.
So he gets hired by USC based on the one great season at UCLA. He takes over what was a horrific defense the previous season which any competant coach could improve and replaces half the starters with better players. Then he gets one of the friendlier schedules one could imagine:
LSU in their first game replacing almost every skill position player.
Utah St. which lost their starting QB to injury in the previous game.
Michigan whose projected starting QB hadn't recovered from spring injuries, the backup being ineffective and went to their 3rd string QB who couldn't pass.
Wisconsin who lost their starting QB to injury in the previous game.
Although Lynn was a major upgrade for USC's defense (who wouldn't be?), one has to wonder what he could have done with this season's UCLA personnel. As the old saying goes, "It's not the X's and the O's but the Jimmys and the Joes."
So basically all I'm saying is let's give Lynn some more time to prove himself as a defensive genius given his good fortune so far.