Lincoln Riley and staff are a year and a half into a dramatic overhaul of USC's roster, filtering in 33 transfer additions over that time (including some who have already moved on after spending their final season of eligibility here in 2022) and 33 high school/JUCO signees spread over two classes (including one who has already transferred out).

Riley was clear from the start that the roster he inherited was nowhere near ready to compete for the goals this program should have annually.

Even after winning 11 games in his debut season and coming close to a College Football Playoff berth, Riley candidly reiterated that the talent level still wasn't where it needed to be.

"In reality, I'll be disappointed if this isn't the worst team that we have in our entire tenure here. I say that with -- I've loved coaching this team, like loved it -- but we want to continue [to elevate]," he said back in December after the early signing period.

And indeed the Trojans have continued plugging holes, bolstering weak spots and in general collecting more talent across the board.

Riley spent much of the spring specifically heralding the upgrades made to the defensive front seven, indirectly acknowledging one key factor in why he has been much more patient with defensive coordinator Alex Grinch than the fans have -- the talent and depth throughout the defense simply wasn't there last year.

"I mean, totally different [now]. From a scheme/knowledge standpoint, from a talent standpoint, especially in the front seven, the competitive depth. Defensively, last year there was a little bit of a sense of you had your handful of really good players and then there was too much of a gap between those guys and everybody else, whereas now we got some really good outstanding individual players but the gap has closed," Riley said after the spring game.

"Because of that, we have more competition, more depth, guys are really having to push, guys know the system better, we've got some good leaders on that side of the ball. So certainly a long ways from where we were a year ago, there's no question about that, but still a long ways to go."

The Trojans would add former five-star defensive tackle, Georgia transfer Bear Alexander after those comments were made.

Still, it will take further recruiting classes and transfer cycles for the Trojans to truly maximize their 85 scholarship spots, but it's notable that 56 of those now belong to players who joined the program since Riley was hired.

Perhaps more to the point, the roster now boasts 10 players who were rated as five-star prospects coming out of high school and 20 players who were Rivals100 prospects -- plus six others who landed between 100-130 in their respective class rankings.

For comparison, the 2021 USC roster had five five-stars, 14 Rivals100 prospects (though transfer Jake Smith never actually played for the team and Ishmael Sopsher barely saw the field in his one season here) along with six others in that 100-130 range.

But with regard to Riley's roster building efforts, only two of those five-stars and five Rivals100 guys carried over to 2022 and the starting point of this roster rebuild -- the rest has all been added in just a year and a half.

With all of that said, as we launch our full "State of the Position" series this week, let's take an overhead look at the roster while ranking the units in terms of strength with a 1-10 rating that weights heavily toward the projected starters but also factors in overall depth and foundation for the future.

USC fans get to enjoy one more season of quarterback Caleb Williams, a transcendent talent who already has one Heisman Trophy on his resume with a very strong chance to become just the second two-time Heisman winner ever while already being widely projected as the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Yes, on the strength of Williams alone, this rating could be no less than a perfect score.

He was the best player in college football as a true sophomore and will try to build on that incredible production -- 4,537 passing yards, 42 touchdowns, 5 interceptions, plus 382 yards and 10 TDs rushing -- in his much-anticipated Trojans encore.

His biggest challenge in vying for a second Heisman is perhaps simply trying to clear the already high bar he's set for himself.

While having one more season of Williams gives the Trojans a considerable advantage for 2023, reality will come swiftly thereafter in trying to replace him. It only stands to reason that this unit will rate differently when we do this exercise again next year, but for now USC is in fairly ideal shape here with the reigning Heisman winner, a third-year backup in Miller Moss who drew significant praise during the spring for his development, a five-star freshman in Malachi Nelson who has all the tools to be a star in the future and further depth with veteran Jake Jensen, the former JUCO transfer who looked capable in his limited spring game reps.

There's no safer bet when it comes to USC football than to presume the Trojans will always be loaded at wide receiver as long as Riley and his prolific offense are in place. For that matter, the program remained pretty well stocked at the position even during its leaner years under Clay Helton.

As for the 2023 unit, there may not be a surefire first-round NFL draft pick like Jordan Addison leading the group, but that's about the only nit to pick.

Dorian Singer (66 catches for 1,105 yards and 6 TDs) was arguably the best receiver USC went against last season while with Arizona, and he now helps to fill that void left by Addison.

It's also reasonable to expect increased production from Mario Williams (40-631-5) and Brenden Rice (39-611-4), who both possess dynamic skillsets but need to show steadier hands and cut down on costly drops.

Tahj Washington might already be underrated yet again after putting up a huge season last fall (50-785-6).

Michael Jackson III and Kyron Hudson jointly take the "just needs opportunities" torch from Kyle Ford (transferred to UCLA) as talented potential contributors in waiting.

And then USC added to its surplus of riches here by bringing in arguably the most exciting freshman receiver in the country in five-star Zachariah Branch, along with highly-rated four-star Makai Lemon and highly-intriguing 6-foot-5 playmaker Ja'Kobi Lane.

(And we're not even fully factoring in five-stars Raleek Brown, who projects to get a lot of work in the slot on top of whatever role he maintains in the backfield, or Duce Robinson, who is called a tight end but should be moved all around the field.)

So why is this unit not also a 10? Good question. We may already regret that one, but the thought process was the lack of a projected first-round pick like Addison and the banking on improved play from Rice/Williams and the emergence of young talent yet to do it at the college level.