Lincoln Riley’s Trojans were successful in signing the country’s No. 1 class for 2026, with 35 blue-chippers, including multiple 5-star recruits. It’s a clear blueprint for dominance. Yet amid the euphoria, Riley appears to be caught in a storm over USC’s fraying soul, the Notre Dame rivalry slipping away, exposing cracks in USC’s identity, with whispers of bigger problems slowly taking shape.

“We absolutely do (deserve USC-Notre Dame rivalry),” Irish Breakdown owner Bryan Driskell said on Crain & Cone on February 7. “But what we don’t need is we don’t need USC trying to pretend like they really wanted to play it. We all grew up in an era where USC had that ‘we’ll play anybody, anywhere’ mindset. And now it’s like, well, ‘We play in the tough Big 10, and we might get some good Big Ten teams.’ USC tries, wants to play the victim.” 

According to Driskell, USC has been talking about getting out of the Notre Dame rivalry since 2022, and now, suddenly, they want sympathy. The irony is that Lincoln Riley once embraced this rivalry. In 2022, he beat Notre Dame 38-27 at the Coliseum and talked up its importance. He said games like that were part of why he took the USC job. Fast forward a few years, and that enthusiasm looks conditional. When the schedule stiffened, so did the hesitation. 

Driskell pointed to a pattern. When Oklahoma prepared to join the SEC, Lincoln Riley left. Now that USC is in the Big Ten, he doesn’t want to play Notre Dame anymore.

“It’s who Lincoln Riley is,” he added. “USC won’t win a title under Lincoln Riley because he doesn’t have the toughness to become that guy.”

Lincoln Riley said USC spent months trying to keep the rivalry alive, insisting Notre Dame had publicly committed to playing “anytime, anywhere.” Speaking before the Alamo Bowl loss to TCU, he claimed that if the Irish had honored that stance, the teams would be scheduled to play over the next two seasons. 

“That proposal was rejected,” he said. “Not only was it rejected, but five minutes after we got the call, it was announced they scheduled another opponent, which I’ll give them credit. That might be the fastest scheduling act in college football history.”

According to Lincoln Riley, USC AD Jennifer Cohen even submitted a proposal to bridge the gap while long-term talks continued. But Notre Dame rejected it and quickly scheduled BYU for 2026 and 2027. But if you go back, the dilemma around the rivalry began in 2024 when Lincoln Riley said USC might need lighter nonconference games to help navigate an expanded CFP. 

Still, the head coach maintained the rivalry sits ‘up at the top’ of the sport and insisted the Trojans would have “no problem following through on our promises” in the future. The questions about Riley’s ‘toughness’ extend beyond the schedule, now casting a shadow over the very foundation of his program: his highly touted recruiting class.

Could Lincoln Riley suffer Jimbo Fisher’s fate?

Lincold Riley’s No. 1 recruiting class now comes with a different kind of pressure. These days, a top recruiting class is no longer a long-term promise, as NIL and the transfer portal allow players to leave early and reshuffle depth charts overnight. USC already learned that lesson when 5-star QB Husan Longstreet bolted for LSU after one season. The situation doesn’t help Lincoln Riley either. Of the top-10 recruiting classes in 2026, six made the CFP. The Trojans didn’t. 

Financially, USC went all-in. On3 surveyed P4 front offices, and 12 of 13 labeled USC the highest spender in the cycle. And yet, they were the only big spender who stayed home in December. One Big 12 GM summed it up without sugarcoating. 

“They’re doing something because they spent a lot of f—ing money,” he said. “They got a good class. But is Lincoln [Riley] going to be the one to see them grow up? Or is it going to be like Jimbo Fisher?”

Remember Jimbo Fisher in 2022? He signed a No. 1 class at Texas A&M, won early, then watched it unravel. He was gone a year later with no SEC title game appearances and a reputation for wasted potential. And now Lincoln Riley is brushing up against the same question: not about talent, but about toughness, scheduling philosophy, and whether avoiding hard roads ever leads to the top.