Raiders assistant leaves for USC amid coaching staff changes

When Antonio Pierce officially became the Las Vegas Raiders' head coach, he retained a number of assistants that Josh McDaniels had previously hired. One of those assistants is Rob Ryan.

Ryan was the Raiders' defensive coordinator for five seasons from 2004 to 2008 and returned to the franchise as a senior defensive assistant in 2022. Ryan is loved by fans due to his silver, long hair and enthusiastic personality.

Unfortunately, he's not going to wait around and see if the next head coach will want to bring him back. USC announced that Ryan is joining their coaching staff as an assistant head coach for defense and linebackers coach.

Ryan hasn't coached at the college level in over two decades but he does have plenty of experience. He was the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State from 1997 to 1999. USC is a bit of a floundering football program under Lincoln Riley and Ryan is the type of coach who can bring some excitement in the building.

He's a natural leader so it makes sense to have him be an assistant head coach. Ryan may find that he's better in college so it's possible he might be coaching in the NFL. However, it's easy to see him come back if his brother Rex Ryan lands a head coaching job in the future.