USC has had a busy offseason with several key staff additions both on the field and on the player personnel/recruiting department side.
On Wednesday, Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley spent some time to introduce the newest staff members to the local media in addition to discussing the newest two 2025 signees and addressing other notable offseason topics.
Watch the full interview below and scroll down for a complete transcript of his 26 minutes worth of comments ...
Full transcript of Lincoln Riley's comments Wednesday
Opening comments ...
"First, definitely want to recognize just our community, obviously all the damage from the fires in previous weeks has been something that's been heavy on the heart of our entire program. We were very fortunate that we had a very limited number of people within our program that were affected when you talk about former players, current players and staff, so very, very fortunate that ​way, but it's also something that's become very important to our team from an outreach standpoint to make sure we're supporting our community, the first responders. I've been very proud of our team's response, how involved and engaged our staff has been, our guys have been with that effort and those are certainly going to continue. And again, our thoughts and prayers go out to all the people affected and our entire community. It's something we feel. We knew USC is a huge part of Los Angeles, the amount of support that we get, how close this city is -- it's very near and dear to us. So just want everybody to know we're here and going to continue to support those efforts -- the first responders, the families affected as much as we possibly can.
"Second, want to go through just some of these new hires and responsibilities. I'm sure I'll get some questions on them here in a second, but obviously welcoming Rob Ryan, our assistant head coach for defense and linebackers coach. Obviously, not hard to find out about his history and the type of coach that he is, the type of players that he's coached -- very fortunate to be able to add him to our staff. And you can feel his energy, his experience, his impact already. Chad Savage as our tight ends and inside receivers coach -- a guy that really stood out to us very quickly in the process when we were looking to make obviously the additional offensive staff hire and really somebody that has caught our eye in terms of being an elite developer of talent, elite recruiter, tremendous connections on the West Coast, specifically in the Los Angeles area that we certainly feel already. And had the added benefit of working with, knowing and having worked with a lot of people that know Chad directly, so that's been a tremendous hire. And then Trovon Reed most recently as our corners coach. Something that we had looked at after the offseason and certainly being able to take advantage of some of the new rules involving coaching and what all the different staff members can do, was adding another full-time secondary coach to the mix. You know, Coach Belk will still be certainly the lead secondary coach and obviously assisted by Coach Lynn with his secondary experience, but bringing Trovon in as a former NFL player, another guy that's a tremendous recruiter, has great relationships and we think will do a tremendous job pairing with Coach Belk and Coach Lynn.
"And then I want to announce those at least that are officially hired and here right now on the personnel side. Obviously, Chad Bowden is the general manager, Dre Brown is the executive director of scouting and personnel and then Zaire Turner the assistant AD of recruiting operations. Want to give a shout out, just before I talk about that staff as a whole, to Jen Cohen, to Jay Hilbrands, to Dave Emerick, those three in particular were vital in this process of really revamping our entire kind of off-the-field and personnel, recruiting, scouting staff. These are hires and really a bigger change that has been in the works even before the season started, and I think we quickly recognized as we started vetting candidates, as we started having conversations that this is obviously an ever-evolving world in college football. There were a lot of different people that we talked to in a lot of different areas from the NFL, college, business -- I mean, we talked to people with all types of backgrounds. It was the most, honestly, extensive search, hiring and interview process that I've ever been a part of, but I believe our patience and how thorough we were, how committed we all were, our administration was to getting this right was absolutely rewarded. I think Chad and obviously his track record speaks for itself and that was something that made sense pretty quickly when we were able to engage in some conversations with him in terms of our vision for USC, his vision for what we could continue to me, and there was just a genuine and shared excitement about where this place is going that I think really neither side could ignore. And then really excited through his connections to add Dre and Zaire to the fold.
"We've got a couple others that will be announced here in the coming days and be here to Los Angeles that will continue to round out that staff, but I fully believe when it's all said and done -- and I don't say this lightly -- I think it's going to be the best personnel, off-the-field staff in the country, and that was the goal to build that from the beginning. You see where these people have come from, their experience, the quality of jobs that they're leaving, they're not just doing this out of the kindness of their hearts -- they see the opportunity here. They see the momentum here, and that's why we've been able to assemble that staff along with, again, just tremendous support from Jen and everybody on the administrative side. And it's made a big difference. You can feel the excitement within our walls as a staff, bringing in this quality of people, the difference that it's going to make in our program is certainly going to be felt and really already being felt. And I think it's also, again, another vote of confidence in terms of where this program is headed to see these people join up with us, to see the investment by the university, and pairing with that we've set some very aggressive goals from an NIL standpoint that our administration is heading up. We really, want to certainly encourage all the great Trojans out there to continue to support that initiative because just like hiring some of these great coaches we've been able to hire, hiring this personnel staff, investing, doing all the things we're doing to keep this program accelerating, that's going to continue to be another big part and we're counting on all the Trojans to step up and do their part there. As always, it's very much appreciated.
