“Foundational”—that’s what Lincoln Riley thinks his last season was. He joined the most competitive conference in college football after recording a poor finish with the Pac-12 conference. The record for 2024 is the lowest ever in the head coach’s career.  Mistakes were made from the staffing point and on a lot of fronts, while Riley finally admits he started undoing his career with the Trojans. Now, he’s adamant about keeping them at bay, and it’s truly started to make the difference.

Riley was brought to USC in hopes of keeping his winning zeal from Oklahoma intact. He won four Big 12 Championships with the Sooners. Likewise, he knocked it out of the park in his first year with the Trojans. But the next season, his numbers sharply dropped to 8-5. And it dropped further in 2024. A key issue in that was the roster. Trojans Wire noted that Riley had good players, but not great ones. “This team was average. Average is not the USC standard,” the article mentioned. Riley shared his thoughts about how that failure is impacting his journey ahead on Y-Option: College Football with Yogi Roth.

“We decided to go all in after the success for the first year and try to really blow it out in year two, and that was a mistake,” the HC admitted. But those mistakes, which even trickled down into his third, are leading to improvements. Riley said the staff is now “getting more away from the portal, getting more into the high school developmental process.” Roster construction was Riley’s single biggest error in 2024, especially after Caleb Williams’ departure. The offensive line struggled, along with new QB Miller Moss. Jayden Maiava was brought on too late and then became the star Riley had been looking for so long.

Learnings from those mistakes have bolstered them even more in the 2026 class, where they currently sit at the top. They improved this year as well, going up three places from their 2024 ranking of No. 18. This season, the roster looks so much stronger, with great depth in multiple rooms. His quarterback looks set in Jayden Maiava, but coming to his aid is a star O-lineman, who has the potential to up the Trojans’ offensive game by a lot this season.

Lincoln Riley’s key recruit is a star in the making for Jayden Maiava

Keenyi Pepe turned heads after joining Riley’s 2026 class, another addition to his slew of blue-chip talents. The No. 3 OT of the class will join his brother Kobe Pepe, who is a defensive tackle. And he is a huge advantage for Maiava to help execute the plays better. Pepe ends an almost decade-long wait for the Trojans to get an elite talent on the offensive line. Down the line, it is these prospects that go big.

“Wanting to get that blue-chip guy, that guy that can be your stalwart on the blind side. Block—those are the teams, those are the guys that NFL teams want,” said 247Sports’ Chris Tevino. The Trojans signed a 5-star recruit last in 2017, i.e., Austin Jackson. And in his draft, he went on to be a first-round pick. Pepe also stands a chance to start right away, too. “He’s going to be as battle-tested as they come across the country,” Tevino remarked.

Though Lincoln Riley will still wait out some time for the rookie to come to show his skills, he knows he’s got a huge win with Pepe committing to USC. But approaching 2025, Riley is locked in on not repeating what he’d done in 2024, and it’s already starting to visualize in his new roster.