Lincoln Riley’s arrival to Southern California was a boon for the Trojans. USC bounced out of a 4-8 trench from the 2021 season when the former Oklahoma HC took the Trojans reins in 2022. Riley’s coaching abilities speak for themselves as was seen from his success at Oklahoma with four consecutive Big 12 Conference titles. Replacing Clay Helton, he exhibited his mastermind with a solid record for the program that even produced a Heisman winner. And how did he do that? 

Lincoln Riley sat down with CFB analyst Adam Breneman to voice his opinions on building a roster via the transfer portal vs. high school player recruitment. As posted by Breneman on X on September 20, the USC HC said, “The portal, in the beginning especially, was a chance for us to get relevant or back to relevant quickly… We had to shock the system and in the beginning, we did that.”

After Lincoln Riley joined USC in 2022, he turned the program around by making use of the transfer portal. He recruited elite players like Caleb Williams who went on to lead the Trojans with an 11-1 record to become the Heisman Trophy winner in his debut HC season. Year 2 wasn’t as successful as they missed the Playoffs but they still finished as No. 6 for the 2023 season.

With USC about to go head to Week 4, Riley also expressed his confidence for the long-term saying, “High school recruiting’s gone really well and the development piece has gone really well. A lot of that has been happening a little bit beneath the surface and you’re not necessarily seeing that a lot.” We shall see if Riley’s developmental program can take out the national champions Michigan in what is going to be an epic clash. 

What to know before the USC vs Michigan clash

Lincoln Riley and USC will get on the road to play against Sherrone Moore and the Wolverines on September 21 at Michigan Stadium. Michigan already suffered a blow from Texas and enters the game 2-1 while the Trojans boast a pristine 2-0 record as they meet their Big Ten opponent for the first time since their Rose Bowl clash in 2007. 

USC and Michigan met only 10 times before where the Trojans led 6-4. They will enter the Week 4 game as a 5.5-point favorite featuring QB Miller Moss. Meanwhile, after Davis Warren failed to perform to the expectations, Michigan will be starting another QB in Alex Orji who served as the backup QB to J.J. McCarthy in last season’s National Championship victory. Will USC carry on its winning streak with another victory or will Michigan beat the odds and make an epic comeback?

Also while waiting for the Big kickoff, dive into some insightful football talk presented by Doug Sanders in our exclusive Think Tank podcast.