The most beautiful yet brutal thing about sport is that there aren’t any do-overs. Once something’s done, it’s done, and the knock-on effect is in motion. Sure, you have mulligans in golf, but that concept doesn’t apply to professional sports. No do-overs also means you need to learn one thing very quickly, maybe even the hard way. There’s no room for regret in sport. As clichéd as it sounds, you either win, or you learn. However, it’s only natural human tendency to feel like, “Darn it, if I only did this one thing differently!” Hindsight is 20/20. Despite how his job dictates a need to preach brushing off Ls and moving on, USC Trojans’ head coach Lincoln Riley does hold one regret from the early part of his tenure. A decision he was late to. Which, he thinks, reaching earlier could’ve fast-tracked an upward trajectory for his program.

When Lincoln Riley got to LA from Norman, Oklahoma, initially, he was basking in that southern Cali sun. Leading the Trojans to 11 wins in Year 1. Coach Riley really had the Midas touch at the time as the hottest commodity in football coaching. A quarterback whisperer and offensive whiz who’d done it at bluebloods OU and was now doing the same at USC. However, that halo around him has dissipated since. Those Cali beaches transpired into quicksand as the daunting challenge of the rebuild at hand began descending on Riley. In the two years since, USC has won 8 and 7 games, respectively. But what was the turning point that led to this downturn in the win/loss column? Coach Riley has now answered that question.

USC’s backyard of California has been a hotbed for athletic talent for years. That means they have an automatic advantage on the recruitment front, as they are the most resource-rich program in the biggest sports market in the country. The pageantry of LA aside, recruits can also be sold on career avenues outside of football. Lincoln Riley recognizes this geographical advantage. In fact, he even proclaimed it to be a key factor in why he took the job. USC has finally begun flexing its muscles in high school recruitment. They currently boast of the top-ranked class for 2026. However, building through high school takes time. When Riley first took over the job, he needed to get results expeditiously. So he leaned on the transfer portal instead. A less sustainable but more instant route to success. With 11 wins, success did come. But at a cost.

Lincoln Riley interviewed with Josh Pate for the latter’s “Pate State Speaker Series.” In the midst of this insightful discussion, Coach Riley was asked something along the lines of if he’d change something about his approach between Year 1 and Year 2. Given the team’s setbacks during that period, it’s reasonable to assume that Coach Riley has some areas he would like to improve. He prefaced his answer by reiterating just how well the first season went. “[Whether] we could have done much better year one, I don’t know. I mean, we came within a quarter and maybe a pulled hamstring from going to the playoffs,” said Riley. “That team really came together and did a phenomenal job. Was that a playoff team? In my mind…I don’t know,” he added. Riley then delved into what he’d change after that season, knowing what he knows now. 

“If I had it to do over again, being completely honest…right after that first year [I] would have shifted quicker into a little bit less portal and started trending a little bit faster [towards high school recruitment],” remarked Lincoln Riley. “Because I feel like we got what we wanted the first year. We shocked the system. We created belief. There was an excitement,” he proceeded. USC really did have a lot of momentum at the time.

But didn’t strike while the iron is hot and delve into the more long-term modus operandi of building from within. Alas, at least they’re doing that now. The class of ‘26 is a testament to this. USC is really trying to build a fence around California and get a stronghold on in-state recruits. That’s a great place to start correcting these wrongs from 2 years ago. But solve one issue, and another crops up elsewhere.

Lincoln Riley on the non-football stuff coaches have to deal with

As the final question of the aforementioned interview, Josh Pate asked Lincoln Riley something rather vague. But read between the lines, and you’d know exactly what the premise was. “You’ll notice we didn’t talk about scholarship numbers, we didn’t talk about court cases. We didn’t talk about a lot of stuff that you’re having to answer questions about constantly. How tired are you of talking about stuff that has nothing to do whatsoever with football recently?” asked Pate. 

The undertone here, or at least what it seems, both in a vacuum and with the context of the entire conversation, is the off-field stuff enveloping CFB. From NIL to the House Settlement and everything in between. The crux of the question is this: As a person whose primary job is to be a football coach, how frustrating is it to deal with all the ancillary stuff that comes with being the head coach of a program? Dealing with collectives, recruits, and all that sort of stuff. Lincoln Riley’s reply was earnest.

“I try not to get tired of it. Because it’s a job, right?” said Coach Riley. “I’m kind of energized by all of it and all that’s going on here [at USC]. I know some things on the outside are rocky… you’ve got to be ready to navigate through some of that to get to the desired outcome…Let’s focus on the positives. Because there’s still a ton. We still have the greatest game on the planet, and that’s a hell of a place to start.” Touché, coach. Someone still relatively young and inexperienced as Lincoln Riley is still learning things on the fly. Are mistakes and potential regrets a part of the learning curve? Of course. But a coach of this ilk tends to make amends rather than sulk about them. There’s an air of positivity around USC right now. It’ll be fascinating to see whether it translates to performances and results on the gridiron.