STATE COLLEGE — Just days after Matt Campbell was introduced as Penn State’s 17th head football coach in the university’s history, he had gotten word that Jon Heacock, his defensive coordinator at Iowa State, was retiring.

Heacock is 65 years old and had been all over the country as a DC and previously also spent nine years as head coach at Youngstown State.

That sent Campbell back to square one in what he wanted in his new defensive coordinator.

“From that point, you say, ‘What is best for Penn State football?” Campbell said Wednesday.

Campbell got his wish in USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.

It helped that Lynn played at Penn State from 2008-11 under Joe Paterno.

“Even some of our own coaches said (to Lynn), ‘Hey, come with me,'” Campbell said. “It just felt like he was the No. 1 target for the style of defense we want to play. He’s somebody that understood Penn State football. He wanted to be here. He had a passion for Penn State, and I thought that was critical.”

Lynn, a former Lion cornerback, cut his teeth in coaching as a quality control coach in the NFL with the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers.

He also spent time with the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens before making the transition back to college, where he spent the last three years as the defensive coordinator at UCLA and USC.

Lynn said it wasn’t an easy decision. His wife is from Los Angeles, and it also wasn’t easy to leave the USC players.

But the 36-year-old jumped at the chance to come back to his alma mater, where he was a three-time all-Big Ten honorable mention selection.

Lynn said the last time he was in the Lasch Building was for Christian Hackenberg’s pro day in 2015.

“A lot has changed. The facility looks completely different,” Lynn said during a media availability Wednesday. “The upgrades are awesome. It’s cool to be back and see that.

“There’s certain parts (of campus) that look the exact same. There’s certain parts that look completely different. You see some familiar faces, the campus and buildings you haven’t seen in a long time. It brought back a lot of memories.”

Lynn is regarded as a coach who will rely on his players’ strengths rather than settle into a certain defense. If the unit’s strength is on the linebackers, which is often the case at Penn State, Lynn is accustomed to playing his defense where his linebackers have the best chance to succeed.

It’s something that Terry Smith has noticed as he transitions back to his former role as the assistant head coach and cornerbacks coach.

“Coach Lynn is so much younger than me, but he’s such a talented mind,” Smith said. “He’s super sharp. He’s very creative in his approach to defense. One of the strengths of him is he’s not fixed in a certain defense. He’s fixed into players more so than this plays. I think he’s a dynamic mind. He’s very creative. He’s obviously a young, energetic person. He’s the right fit for us.”

Campbell said he couldn’t be much more excited to be working with Lynn in his first season in State College. It turned out that Campbell was also a big factor in the decision why Lynn felt it was the right time to come back to campus.

“I didn’t know him at all,” Lynn said. “I obviously have a lot of respect for him, and the more I talked to him, it reminded me of why I went to Penn State as far as the values and the character that he has.

“Coming back here to coach, I didn’t think that opportunity would come. Me and my wife just felt like it was the right decision.”