LOS ANGELES — For everyone fussing about cultural fit, Lincoln Riley left evidence right out in the open months ago that it was going to work out just fine. Check his Twitter account from May 21, 2021, when then-Oklahoma football coach Riley posted video of himself surfing with his daughter, Sloan.
He might not be ready to ride the big rollers at The Wedge at Newport Beach. Not yet. But a guy who grew up in Muleshoe, Texas, and spent most of his adult life in Lubbock and Norman really can relocate to Los Angeles and USC. He can exchange cowboy boots for flip-flops without losing stride.
“Pretty normal path, right?” Riley joked with last week. “It will be different, but I’ve told people I have a life’s-too-short mentality. Go experience it. My family has always loved the West Coast. The chance to raise our kids out here is a great opportunity.”
The wave of enthusiasm Riley is riding now is a sporting tsunami. One of the most audacious coaching moves in college football history is still gaining momentum, with a fresh surge Tuesday. That’s when Riley’s star quarterback at Oklahoma, Caleb Williams, finally announced that he’s following his coach to USC.
This was a recruiting score built very much out of 2022 pieces—the ability to marshal resources and present compelling Name, Imagine and Likeness (NIL) opportunities, plus the immediate transfer eligibility that has made rapid roster remodeling possible. In both those areas, the Trojans, with their rich donor reservoir and L.A. connections to entertainment and business, are positioned to win big. “USC can leverage the power of the market it’s in,” says one industry insider familiar with the school’s NIL plans. “There’s a whole world they can tap into.”
All last week, USC staffers maintained Cheshire Cat countenances when the subject of Williams arose. The excitement was contained, barely, while waiting for things to play out on the quarterback’s meandering timetable. Now that Williams is on campus and enrolled, the euphoria is out in the open and Riley’s National Letter of Intent signing day press conference on Wednesday should reflect that.
“This is exactly the type of buzz, energy and passion we need,” athletic director Mike Bohn says. “I’m a big believer that energy wins. And we’ve got it right now.”
While Williams’s transfer sent another spasm of bitterness through jilted Sooners fans—some of whom now refer to Riley in internet shorthand as TBOW, or That B—- Out West—it capped off two months of sustained euphoria for the Trojans. The talent riding Riley’s coattails into L.A. is dazzling, which is exactly what USC envisioned when he was hired but perhaps did not expect quite this quickly.
A day after Mississippi coach and Twitter wiseacre Lane Kiffin crowned himself king of the transfer portal, he voluntarily relinquished that title to Riley. “We can transfer that to him,” said Kiffin, whose coup landing USC QB transfer Jaxson Dart was made possible by the fact that Riley was bringing in the bigger prize in Williams.
That pushed the Trojans to the top of the latest recruiting metric in the shifting world of college football, the 247Sports transfer portal rankings. USC already was crushing the portal, having added Oregon running back Travis Dye (nearly 4,000 career yards from scrimmage), another pair of Sooners in receiver Mario Williams and cornerback Latrell McCutchin, and several others who could have immediate impact.
On the high school front, Riley has procured a small but talented cast of 2022 prospects and gotten a big start on ’23, again plundering Oklahoma for a pair of five-star recruits who had initially committed there. Both Malachi Nelson and Makai Lemon are Southern California kids now prepared to stay home, as the new USC staff criss-crosses the area to slow the talent exodus that helped leave a proud program in disrepair. The Trojans are trying to end an era when a local star like Bryce Young was a regular at USC practice and then signed with Alabama.
“Just about everyone we come across has some sort of tie or investment level in the program,” Riley says. “Gosh, it’s unique. I do think there’s a real sense of pride in this city about USC football.
“You feel how eager people are to see USC on top again. You feel like it’s ready to explode. It’s primed.”
