COLUMN: Looking back on one 'surreal' year of Lincoln Riley at USC

Lincoln Riley put it as succinctly as it could be said, standing on the field in the Coliseum on Saturday for his pregame interview that would be carried over the stadium speakers.

"It's not a vision anymore. Enjoy it."

That vision started coming into focus exactly one year ago today, when reports began circulating early on a Sunday that USC was closing in on a deal to hire Riley away from Oklahoma.

Lincoln (bleeping) Riley.

The real-time reaction was no different within the Trojans football program as it was on the outside, as the college football world from Norman, Okla., to Los Angeles and beyond was unilaterally stunned.

"I remember it was pretty crazy. I was hearing what everyone else was hearing, just seeing stuff online, maybe getting a text from someone about a rumor, this or that. I remember someone first said 'Coach Riley rumor,' and I was like, 'No shot,'" right tackle Jonah Monheim recalled. "And then it actually happened."

"It was a little jaw-dropping," right guard Justin Dedich said. "It was like, 'Shoot, we got Coach Riley from Oklahoma.' ... I still remember that day, but it feels like ages ago. So much has changed. This team has been through a lot, though. I feel like that was, like, I guess the bottom, and from that moment we've grown to where we are now. ... I'm just so grateful for the experience I've had this last year."

Every USC fan has echoed some version of that comment over the last year -- particularly the last three months. Those fans packed into the Coliseum on Saturday in a way they hadn't in a handful of years, to watch the Trojans wallop rival Notre Dame, 38-27, improving to 11-1 and No. 4 in the AP poll, with a Pac-12 championship game on tap this Friday, a College Football Playoff appearance looking increasingly possible and another Heisman Trophy for the program's collection almost a certainty.

One year ...

Riley again put it all in perspective after the latest momentous victory.

"It's fun to see the Coli like that. Sitting up there at that press conference close to 12 months ago and kind of just imagining that, and these guys have brought it to life," he said. "I don't know how long it's been since it was like that -- I haven't been here before [this year] -- but man, it was electric in there. That's kind of what I remember watching as a young kid. "

It is what he had pledged to do, after all.

Riley came in a year ago talking about competing for championships -- immediately -- while looking down from the seventh-floor vista of an empty Coliseum during his introductory press conference and proclaiming that the venerable venue would become the "Mecca of college football."

He didn't have to say all of that, of course.

In taking over a 4-8 team and a program four years removed from its last whiff of national relevance, almost a decade and a half removed from a true seat at the table of college football's elites, after three failed coaching hires chasing the ghost of what Pete Carroll had built, the USC fan base wasn't expecting a miracle.

Riley could have talked about rebuilding and the process that was ahead. He was given several chances over his first eight months here to couch expectations, and every time he doubled down.

Like before the start of spring practice ...

"I'm not going to take any goal off the table. I said it Day 1, that's not why we came here. We expect to compete for and win championships every single year that we're here. I'll save you that question for the next 10-15 years. That's gonna be the same answer. That's just who we are as a staff, that's what we believe in and frankly that's what this program should be about. This is USC -- the expectation here should be to win championships every single year."

And again in late July at Pac-12 Media Day ...

"We didn't come here to play for second. We are not wired that way. We came here competitively to win championships, to win them now and to win them for a long time. And that will always be our expectation."

Riley reminded everybody of that on Saturday night, after walking up the tunnel to the locker room with both arms raised above his head as the fans cheered the 11th win of a nearly perfect season (with a one-point loss under adverse circumstances on the road in Utah the lone blemish) that has exceeded any realistic expectation.

At least, for anyone outside of the program.

"You guys know me, I've stood right by what I told you our expectations were from Day 1," Riley said after the win over Notre Dame. "A lot of people thought I was crazy, and that's fine. The people within the walls knew what we were about and I think had a sense of what we were building. It's been a fun run."