While it may seem from the outside like new USC coach Lincoln Riley has had to rally this Trojans 2022 recruiting class totally on the fly these last two and a half weeks, it actually sounds as if he has instead had a very calculated, structured and clear plan for it all.
The main point Riley kept coming back to Friday in discussing the recruiting results to this point, is that it hasn't at all been about the numbers -- only about getting the right players that fit what he is trying to build.
It's about the big picture -- "not trying to win a Wednesday in December," as he put it.
"This roster buildup is going to be a process and we're going to be patient. We know exactly what we're looking for. We know the areas that we're not going to compromise, and we're not going to lose our patience or our poise and stray away from our plan of building an elite roster here," Riley said while meeting with reporters inside Heritage Hall. "And you've got a staff, myself, everybody included, they're fully committed to that."
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Riley's predecessor Clay Helton often preached patience as well. In fact, it was in his final postgame press conference as head coach, after that ugly early loss to Stanford that set the wheels for all of this in motion, that Helton told reporters, "It's Game 2. It's Game 2. ... I know this, at the end of the season, see where we're at."
By that point the fans had long since lost any capacity for patience, and clearly so had an athletics administration that decided to move on from Helton just two days later.
But this coach -- the one who went 55-10 with four Big 12 titles and three College Football Playoff appearances over five seasons at Oklahoma -- deserves the patience he's preaching.
The more he talked Friday, the more his vision and the necessary components of it resonated.
After years past, like the 2019 recruiting class here -- when the coaching staff scrambled in a panic to fill spots over the final months, taking on a handful of three-star (and two-star) prospects it hadn't been recruiting previously, who have mostly yet to make an impact on the program -- it was actually refreshing to hear Friday that Riley and his staff haven't felt a forced deadline to fill out this roster.
USC ranks 63rd in the Rivals recruiting rankings through the end of the early signing period, although that only counts public commitments/signings and the Trojans have a few key targets who have signed with their school of choice but won't announce until the all-star games in January.
But the point is, that is not the point.
USC may only have seven signees and one transfer addition at this point, but it didn't stop Riley from matter-of-factly stating that he and his staff plan to turn over a large percentage of the roster through this offseason, spring and summer.
"We talked and we may overhaul 35 if not even more spots on this roster," he said with no hesitation. "That's a huge overhaul when you figure a travel college roster is 70. It's major. And so obviously the transfer portal is going to be a part of it, there's no question about it. ... I'd say we're open for business on all accounts."
Such unrestrained, plain talk like that had been lacking in this program for quite some time, so maybe such a statement only seems bold and head-turning by comparison. Regardless, there is a no-nonsense element to Riley's public comments. He is direct and he is clear as to what his plan is.
More than anything, though, he is confident and it's contagious. His resume gives weight to those words and that plan.
This USC football roster proved it was not good enough to compete for championships as it stumbled to a 4-8 finish this fall -- the worst record in 30 years for the program. And the Trojans are only going to truly become the Trojans again by attracting the kind of top-tier recruits who have built the program's storied national title runs over the decades.
That it took Riley mere weeks (or days) to determine that he needed to overhaul nearly half of the 85-scholarship roster is a statement unto itself.
So maybe the stat that USC fans should fixate on right now with regard to national recruiting comparisons is that the Trojans rank No. 7 in terms of average star rating per commit/signee, and that's factoring in a two-star ding from taking on a high-upside punter from Australia. Isolate punter Atticus Bertrams from the equation -- it's simply a reality that even the best punting prospects aren't going to command high 4- or 5-star status -- and USC's other six commits average a 4.0 star rating.
That would tie Ohio State for first nationally. Certainly, the Buckeyes belong on a different plane at the moment for doing that across a class of 18 commits/signees rather than seven, but the point is Riley and his staff are intent on being selective.
The larger point is they are confident that what they're building, what they're offering to prospects is going to be compelling enough to get the necessary numbers in due time, such that saving those spots now is far more valuable than filling them just to fill them.
Even if it means this class lands modestly in the overall recruiting rankings.
"We did not want to go off on a lot of wild chases on guys that were either maybe unlikely to come here in such a short time period, and then most importantly we didn't want to go off hunting guys, just trying to add guys on signing day that we didn't know and that did not know us. You just take that risk of, am I bringing the wrong piece in the room? And right now obviously you've got to go get the right pieces but you've got to avoid bringing in the wrong pieces too. That's so important," Riley said.
"We'll get the right pieces, trust me. There are enough people that want to come play football at USC and go to school at USC -- we'll get the right pieces. We've just got to make sure we're selective and that we avoid maybe the one that wouldn't fit in our program. So we stuck to that -- we'll continue to stick to that."
And a USC fan base that has been reinvigorated since Riley's hiring should continue to put their trust in his vision and plan.
Really, it's not even a matter of giving the benefit of the doubt, or being blindly optimistic, or anything of the sort.
The sample size may be small, but the evidence is already quite persuasive.
In just a few weeks, Riley flipped five-star all-purpose back Raleek Brown from Oklahoma and beat out mighty Alabama for five-star cornerback Domani Jackson -- both stars at local Mater Dei High School.
Sure, Brown was committed to Riley at Oklahoma and the flip was all but assumed when the coaching change happened, but most figured Jackson was Bama-bound after he de-committed from the Trojans a month ago following a compelling visit to Tuscaloosa.
Riley and his staff had to convince Jackson to buy-in, which he did in signing with USC on Friday.
"You could tell it's a different vibe out there," Jackson said.
With Jackson on board, USC is one of just five programs nationally to have signed two five-star prospects in this class, and only Georgia has signed more than two.
Jackson and Brown rank No. 15 and No. 18 nationally and No. 2 and 3 in the state of California. Add in four-star safety Zion Branch, who signed with USC on Wednesday over Oklahoma and Ohio State, and the Trojans presently have three of the top 63 prospects in this class with a chance for more.
No, they don't have the numbers yet, but they do indeed seem to have everybody's attention again.
"As far as recruiting in this area, getting the best ones obviously is a huge, huge deal for us. Does it send a message? I don’t know. I’ll let the outside decide that," Riley said. "But I don’t think Domani and a few of these others, they would not be signing here unless they felt the momentum of this. In a way, the younger players out there, we hope they follow."
In a way, that's even less of a question. While mostly focusing on this 2022 recruiting class, Riley also landed commitments from five-star 2023 QB Malachi Nelson and high four-star 2023 WR Makai Lemon -- the Los Alamitos HS stars who were committed to him previously at Oklahoma -- and the Trojans are now also the favorites for fellow 2023 four-star Rivals100 WR Zachariah Branch, the younger brother of Zion.
There seems little doubt that USC will put together one of the top 2023 recruiting classes as Riley has a full cycle to work at it.
As for this one -- which so far includes Jackson, Brown, Branch, Rivals250 CB Fabian Ross, three-star DE Devan Thompkins, three-star ILB Garrison Madden, Bertrams and TCU DT transfer Earl Barquet -- Riley was asked how he assembled his recruiting board and crafted his plan after being hired less than three full weeks ago.
"We spent a lot of time early kind of between flights and all the travel that was going on really pouring into the evaluation of tape. And then after that a combination of guys in this part of the country, guys that were considering USC in some form or fashion, we focused the majority of our time there," he said.
Riley will now have a full year-plus to build a larger foundation of guys "considering USC in some form or fashion" in filling out that 2023 class.
In the meantime, he noted that USC's 2022 recruiting board changes "not just everyday but about every five minutes" as he and his staff continue to evaluate all the options, both those remaining in this signing class and those in the continually restocked transfer portal that will play a large role in the construction of his first Trojans team.
Like Riley said, it will be a process. One piece at a time -- as long as it's the right one.
"We started thinking the other day when we were in the staff room talking about the position we were in here the last few weeks, you have to make a decision. You have to make decisions on, OK, do we want to go sign 20 guys in this first signing period? There’s been a lot of interest in people wanting to come here. But we said in the beginning what our priorities are going to be for creating a championship roster here, and we said we’re not going to stray from that, even though it’s tempting," he said.
"It is. It’s tempting to want to come up here today and have 20 names on this list. But we know in the end that’s not how you build a championship roster. It’s about getting the right names. The numbers will come."
While USC didn't win this Wednesday in December with its small signing class, if Riley was trying to win the Friday press conference he couldn't have devised a better plan for that, touching on all the notes Trojans fans wanted to hear most.
From talk of building a new culture, to setting clear expectations for the players, to changing the way things are done within the program, and as much as anything, what he said in continuing that previous response about his recruiting plan and priorities ...
"I’ve recruited this state for a long time. We’ve had a little bit of success recruiting it at some of our previous stops. But I always remember a sense not just in this state but this part of the country that when 'SC was good, they were going to be tough to beat [for recruits]. And when 'SC wasn’t good, you maybe had a chance to sign kids that deep down really wanted to go to 'SC and maybe the program just wasn’t where it needed to be or where they felt like it was good enough to go. I’ve always had that sense throughout the years," Riley said. "Certainly, that was a factor in ultimately taking this job, feeling like you can build one of the elite rosters in the country here. I would say, now having been here for a few weeks, even though it’s still very early, you feel that sense. ...
"I still feel that deep down the majority of players around here, they want to play at USC. But the flip side of it is USC has to give them a reason to want to follow through with that. That’s our job."
To this point, Riley and Co. have provided the fans with ample reason to believe they will do their part.
So for now, patience.
It's Week 3 of the Lincoln Riley Era. It's Week 3. Let's see where they're at by the end of the year.
