After watching his defense crumble in yet another season, Lincoln Riley knew he had to do something. D’Anton Lynn had left for Penn State, taking the defensive coordinator job at his alma mater. Riley picked up his phone and texted the 65-year-old defensive mastermind, Gary Patterson. And the next thing we know, Patterson was taking a subtle jab at USC’s former defensive coordinator.

“Our goal is to teach the defense to try to get to the level the offense has played here,” Patterson said in his introductory press conference.​

Patterson plans to make the defense actually work at USC, and nothing else. He’s bringing his signature 4-2-5 defense, the scheme that made TCU a defensive juggernaut for two decades. But he’s not married to running it exactly as he did in Fort Worth. “A lot of people said they could play the 4-2-5 like TCU does, and they don’t,” Patterson said. 

But he’s also smart enough to know that the Big Ten in 2026 isn’t the Big 12 of 2015. He plans to blend his TCU concepts with what he learned during his time as a consultant at Texas and Baylor. And he’s even taking cues from Indiana’s aggressive approach that impressed him during his year away from the game. The goal is to create something adaptable, something that can handle Oregon’s speed one week and Ohio State’s physicality the next. 

“Instead of just coming in and saying, ‘Well, this is how we’re going to do it,’ it’s been a little bit more work of trying to put it all together,” Patterson explained.

His adaptability matters because USC’s 2025 season exposed glaring weaknesses that Lynn couldn’t fix. The Trojans improved significantly in points allowed and third-down defense compared to 2024, but when the lights got brightest, the defense folded. 

Take the Notre Dame game in October. The Fighting Irish ran wild, with Jeremiyah Love ripping off 228 rushing yards and Jadarian Price adding 87 more on the ground. But the knockout blow came on special teams. Price returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter, swinging momentum completely and putting the game out of reach. USC’s offense did its part, with quarterback Jayden Maiava throwing for 328 yards, but the defense and special teams let the game slip away in the second half. 

Patterson’s resume speaks for itself with 181 wins, six conference titles, and five national rankings as the top defense in the country during his 22 years at TCU. He took the Horned Frogs from Conference USA to the Mountain West and eventually the Big 12. But he never lost relevance. His defenses were nightmares to game-plan against, a fact Riley knows firsthand from their Big 12 days.

“There was never anybody who was more of a pain to game plan for and try to figure out how to move the ball against than this guy,” Riley said. 

What Patterson brings is an edge that USC has been missing. His defenses at TCU were known for their toughness, their discipline, and their ability to adjust on the fly. And he is totally focused on that. He is also not worried about the modern complications of college football with NIL deals, transfer portal chaos, and revenue sharing.

Gary Patterson’s aversion to recruiting

Along with rolling out his defensive vision, Gary Patterson also touched on recruiting and what he expects from USC’s assistant coaches. But he made one thing very clear. His lane is defense, and that’s where he plans to stay.

“My job is defense,” Patterson said to the press. “I don’t deal with NIL. I don’t deal with all those different things. One of the misconceptions, I raised almost a million dollars at TCU before the year that I stepped away. I made a statement about what they said. I said I didn’t like it. It’s not what I said. I said I didn’t think it was going to be good for college football.”

So while Lincoln Riley may not be getting an elite recruiter in Patterson, he’s absolutely getting a proven defensive mind. Patterson orchestrates with the 4-2-5 scheme. It includes four down linemen, two linebackers, and five defensive backs. It’s built for modern spread offenses, keeping the speed on the field without giving up on physicality against the run.

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At USC, Patterson plans to mix his TCU ideas with things he picked up at Texas and Baylor, while also layering it with Riley’s current defense. His résumé backs it up. Patterson won 181 games and six conference titles at TCU, but the real spotlight shone brighter on the defensive side. His 4-2-5 units finished No. 1 nationally in yards allowed five different times.