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LOS ANGELES — When Matt Entz first sat down with Lincoln Riley for an interview at USC last winter, the Trojans head coach asked the two-time FCS championship head coach at North Dakota State a simple question: What’s your vision?
“Coach,” Entz reflected telling Riley in February, “I want to sit in a seat like you do some day.”
In retrospect, then, perhaps Entz’s time in Southern California was destined to be short. He was an FCS dynasty builder who’d the Bisons program to come to USC on a sort of prove-it stop, looking to make an FBS leap but needing FBS experience. But news of Entz’s departure, on the morning of National Signing Day, still came as somewhat of a shock, his total end-to-end tenure at USC lasting less than a single year.
After reports broke that Fresno State was targeting Entz as its next head coach, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to the Southern California News Group on Wednesday that Entz, 52, was leaving for the Bulldogs.
It’s a blow to USC’s new-look defensive staff, constructed in the offseason with Entz – after going 60-11 in five seasons at North Dakota State – lauded as one of its pillars, a coach praised by his players who got career-best production out of Eric Gentry before a series of concussions prematurely ended the linebacker’s season.
A source familiar with the situation indicated the move came as a surprise to veteran linebacker Raesjon Davis, who’d redshirted in 2024 and has been seemingly set to step into a large role. And it clearly took Gentry aback, the 6-foot-6 linebacker posting on social media Wednesday morning that he was “hurt.”
“Yall don’t even understand the man changed my whole perspective about this (expletive)…a year ago I truly believed football wasn’t gonna work out…that man came with the whole d staff and changed my whole perspective,” Gentry wrote on X.
“Working with @IamEricGentry and the rest of the LBs was exactly what I needed in my life,” Entz wrote, quoting Gentry about 20 minutes later. “It’s still about people and relationships. Does not matter what level of football, it’s still about the people.”
The timing of Entz’s move couldn’t have been worse, coming on the morning of a crucial signing day for USC. San Clemente linebacker Matai Tagoa’i, who signed with the Trojans earlier in the day, appeared to reaffirm his pledge on X, writing “God put this in my heart for a reason… FightOn.”
But USC received a gut punch when blue-chip linebacker Madden Faraimo, a local product out of JSerra High, signed with Notre Dame after a heavy pursuit from the Trojans.
A source close to Faraimo earlier Wednesday morning told the Southern California News Group that news around Entz’s departure hadn’t affected Faraimo’s decision. But shortly thereafter, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman – whose program had just beaten USC at the Coliseum a few days earlier – announced at a Signing Day presser that the Fighting Irish had inked Faraimo.
Suddenly, USC was left grasping at straws on a key recruit, and with a key vacancy on their 2025 staff.
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