5 realistic Chip Kelly replacements UCLA can hire to salvage this mess

2. USC defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn

In hindsight, UCLA would have been better off firing Kelly and promoting D'Anton Lynn before USC ever had the chance to hire him away.

Now, the Bruins can play an Uno reverse card and see if they can pull the rug out from under the Trojans by hiring Lynn back.

Lynn has just one year of defensive coordinator experience but in that year he proved he could work miracles. The Bruins' defense went from a liability to the undisputed strength of the team in less than a year. They didn't just field a good defense. They were nationally elite.

That transformation made Lynn an extremely popular figure in the Bruins fanbase. Pulling off this hire would be a feather in Martin Jarmond's cap, taking loads of heat off his own hot seat.

The trouble is Lynn already left the Bruins and he took several defensive players with him. With that trust broken, could he really walk in and command the respect of the team just like that? It could be worth it to find out.