Everything Lincoln Riley said on Malachi Nelson's transfer and the portal

USC coach Lincoln Riley talked to reporters after the Trojans' bowl practice Monday for the first time in nearly two weeks, and many of the questions focused of course on the transfer portal and especially five-star freshman quarterback Malachi Nelson choosing to leave the program after a year.

Riley was fairly candid in his thoughts when asked about the frustration of spending several years recruiting a player -- Nelson committed to Riley first at Oklahoma and then at USC -- and never getting the chance to truly coach them in a game.

"Yeah, that part’s difficult because the old-school in all of us has all the great memories of the guys that we coached that maybe weren’t ready in the beginning and they progressed and got better and you got to see the end of that. So yeah, it’s just part of it now," Riley said. "You know what I mean, it’s just part of the world of college football at this current time and I think for me and our coaches, the one thing that we’ve talked about, that we’ve talked about with our players is putting our energy into the people that are here.

"It’s easy to get wrapped up in all of that, right, who’s entering the portal, who’s doing this, who’s doing that. The reality is every college football program in the country is dealing with it, and we can either put all our attention into who’s doing this, who’s doing that, or we can put our energy into the guys that are out here working and competing and getting ready to go play in this game and to our future recruits. And that’s been our message not just to the team but to ourselves as well. So yeah, sure, you’d love for every guy to come through and be able to see it through, but that’s just not the reality right now."

Riley later expounded on those comments by noting that he and his staff are now prioritizing recruiting players who are committed to the development process and have "a good sense of reality."

It was an interesting comment in the context of Nelson, who wasn't expected to be a factor for the starting QB job in 2024 after being slowed and setback by injuries for much of his freshman year, from the surgery he had on his non-throwing shoulder last winter that limited him through spring practice to subsequent unspecified obstacles.

It has long been expected that Riley would bring in a transfer quarterback to compete with rising redshirt junior Miller Moss, and the Trojans hosted Kansas State QB transfer Will Howard over the weekend. Had Nelson stayed in the program, he would have had a good shot to compete for the job in 2025.

"I know the recruiting approach for us is going to be, again, centered on people who really have a passion to be here. And I think because, to your question earlier about the quarterbacks, you want to have guys who are hungry to get on the field right away but also guys that have a mind to be developed and have a good sense of reality," Riley said. "And I think that's kind of the niche that we're looking for because it always felt like development is one of the hallmarks of our program, one of the strengths that we have, but the other half of that -- you have to do your job, the other half of it is you have to have people who are willing to hang in there and go through what it really takes to develop and become a really good player at this level.

"I would say that piece has even become a bigger part of our evaluation process in terms of kind of what we're targeting. I think this class upcoming has a ton of that."

Riley also noted that he's still evaluating the defensive staff and wouldn't say it's set yet after changing out three of the five spots so far with defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn, linebackers coach Matt Entz and secondary coach Doug Belk.

Watch the full interview here and scroll down for a complete transcript of his comments: