Lincoln Riley joined USC as the 30th head coach, hoping to bring back the glory days of the program. He even said in his inaugural press conference about his motivation to join the program. “History and tradition of one of the greatest college football programs of all time, the city, the Mecca of sports right here in Los Angeles.” Rolling over to the 2024 season, it seems the program has taken several steps back. Some are even going as far as to say that the program was far better in the infamous Clay Helton Era. Sounds a little extreme, right? Well, not completely.

USC was dreaming of competing at national championship levels. Matching the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, and Alabama. But the product USC supporters got was an undercooked and raw team still finding its feet on the biggest stages. The 2024 season has shown just that. With defeats coming from the likes of Michigan, Minnesota, PSU, and Notre Dame, among others. In total, the Trojans lost 6 games and barely ended up with a winning season at 7-6. So, the question is, where are the problems?

The answer is very short: everywhere!! USCJ, who runs a major USC fan analysis channel on YouTube, expanded on the issues. “We‘ve had access, but everything wasn’t being organized the right way. Let me say that we didn’t organize the right way and prioritize the right way, and we didn’t have a general manager that could be able to distribute these finances the right way. And so, as a result, we find ourselves not able to pull the type of talent that other teams were able to pull.“ He was talking about teams like Ohio State, who have found success by heavily tapping into the transfer portal and have made better investment decisions. He added on what exactly went wrong behind the scenes.

“I think with the limited players that we had compared to what Ohio State had, and the product that they put on the field against Michigan. As opposed to the product that USC and Lincoln Riley put on the field. We didn’t buy the bit. You have to think. They got Caleb Downs from Alabama, they got two good players from Alabama, and the quarterback Julian Sayin. You think about how they got the running back from Ole Miss last year (Quinshon Judkins). They got multiple players that were just ballers.”

Well, Ohio State’s 2024 class was undoubtedly remarkable and ranked 1st in the Big 10 (4th nationally). On the other hand, USC‘s 2024 class ranked 20th overall and ranked 19th in transfers. Clearly, Lincoln Riley has to do a lot more. And it seems he is starting to.

USC’s 2025 class has 24 highly capable prospects, including 5-star Husan Longstreet (QB) and Jahkeen Stewart (DL). They have also reined in some very good transfers, including 4-star Jamaal Jarrett from Georgia, 5-star potential-rated Keeshawn Silver (DL) from Kentucky, and 4-star DJ Harvey (CB) from San Jose State. But that’s not it. Because Lincoln Riley is pulling all the strings this time in staff additions too.

Lincoln Riley all in redemption mode for 2025?

Trojans HC has potentially convinced his DC, D’Anton Lynn, to stay after he was reported to depart to his alma mater, Penn State. Furthermore, he also has Rob Ryan as linebackers coach, who joined from the Las Vegas Raiders in the NFL. Apart from these two additions, he also has some good minds in assistant Chad Savage and general manager Max Steinecker. Furthermore, he has also committed to improving in a statement given recently.

“Any part of this program we’re evaluating on, ‘Is it at a national championship level?’ If it’s not, is it trending that way quickly? And if it’s not, we need to fix it“. The mood right now in the USC camp is looking quite optimistic for the future. And why would it not? Can they even afford to fire Lincoln Riley if they wanted to?

They certainly can’t. This is because of his buyout option that stands at $90 million. Of course, no program would want to go bankrupt just by a recruitment decision. That’s why it looks like Riley is at the helm for the near future. And, it also looks like he is out to make amends this time.