Sports

Lincoln Riley changing his USC recruiting strategy is paying off in a big way

Reign of Troy · Jul 21, 2026 19:00 · 3 min read

Lincoln Riley changing his USC recruiting strategy is paying off in a big way — Nov 2, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley watches pregame warmups against the Washington Huskies at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

With the No. 1 incoming class, Riley should stick to this.

When Lincoln Riley came to USC, fans expected the dominance they saw at Oklahoma, but he's certainly fallen short of that. Since hiring him in 2022, the Trojans have had a 35-18 record and no College Football Playoff appearances.

Coming to USC, Riley emphasized that recruiting will go far beyond the state, but there will still obviously be some from California. Since then, the strategy has changed. Now, most recruits are from home, and the switch seems to be paying off.

Lincoln Riley is recruiting more homegrown talent

In the school's history, they have eight Heisman winners. Of those eight, only Caleb Williams wasn't from California. The Trojans are known for producing hometown kids into superstars, which is why many players grew up wanting to play for USC. But Riley hadn't tapped into California talent like previous coaches, at least not until recently.

Riley's first season as head coach was an outlier. They went 11-3 in Williams' Heisman season, but haven't come close to that record ever since. The Trojans got lucky in 2023 when Williams was the quarterback, whom Riley brought with him from Oklahoma. In that season, half of their recruits were from California. The year after, it dropped to 40 percent, and after that, it plummeted to 29 percent.

The team hit a rough patch and seemed to be losing some of its team culture too. Recognizable names like Sam Darnold, Amon-Ra St. Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster were all fan favorites and from California. That bond connected to fans more, but there hasn't been a player fans connected to like that in Lincoln's tenure, besides Makai Lemon.

USC football No.1 2026 recruting class

Last season was the closest Riley has gotten to his first season's success, with a 9-4 record. The Trojans were on the cusp, but they couldn't keep up with Big Ten teams or win on the road. Now, they're in a much better spot with the No.1 recruiting class in the nation.

That class features 57 percent of commits from California. With some notable names like Mater Dei's Mark Bowman and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt. So far, their 2027 class is small, but 64% of them are from the Golden State. The momentum surrounding the team is something that hasn't been there since Riley's first year, and it's partly because it feels like USC football. The answer to the team's problems isn't to only recruit California talent, but it seems recruiting more of them is working out for Riley this year.

The two highest-ranked recruits are five-star edge Luke Wafle and offensive tackle Keenyi Pepe. The edge is from New Jersey and the offensive tackle is from Florida, so it's clear not all the talent needs to come from the same state.

Riley's recruiting strategy moving forward needs to be focused on more hometown commits who are great players and can contribute to USC culture. While still relying on the transfer portal and getting the top talent in positions, no matter where they're from.