Lincoln Riley on USC's zero-sum recruiting game: “You don't want to go to a gunfight with a knife”

When Lincoln Riley took over at USC in 2022, he relied heavily on the Transfer portal to build the squad. The Trojans brought in 19 players from the portal this year, compared to 11 in secondary school Path.

As he prepares for his third year, Riley is placing emphasis on recruiting high school students – and ZERO is a big reason for that. He said it allows him and the team to more accurately target the high school's top targets.

Riley repeated what he had told On3's Pete Nakos at the Big Ten Media Days about USC's “improved” NIL operation. He referred in particular to the USC-focused NIL Collective, House of Victoryas part of this effort to help the Trojans realize the program planned by Riley.

“I've talked a lot about our NIL and its development,” Riley told reporters Thursday. “We can certainly be more aggressive with high school guys than we've ever been before. And that's largely because our NIL has gotten a lot better. House of Victory and all those guys have done a phenomenal job.”

“You don't want to go to a gunfight with a knife. In the beginning, we went to a gunfight with a toy sword. We've made great progress. These guys have done a great job.”

How Lincoln Riley and USC are changing their recruiting strategy

When Lincoln Riley took over in 2022, he brought in 11 players from the high school recruiting phase. A year later, that number rose to 22 new recruits. USC's new freshman class consists of 23 players from the 2024 cycle – a group that will be On3 Industry Team Recruitment Ranking.

Looking ahead, USC has 17 commitments from the 2025 cycle, led by five-star quarterback Julian Lewis. The Carrollton (Georgia) Product is the No. 23 player in the class, according to the On3 Industry Rankinga weighted average that takes into account all four major recruiting media companies. The Trojans are currently ranked 16th in the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings.

However, Riley said his recruiting plan isn't just about moving away from the portal and into high school. It's also about being more tactful in selecting the players to target – not to mention building relationships along the way.

“I think our strategy too… how many high school guys we admit, who we admit, what we target has changed drastically,” Riley said. “We've really changed — like I told you — we haven't really completely moved away from the portal. I don't think we'll ever completely move away from it. You can just look at the numbers. We're on track to become the development program that we want to be long-term for the next 10 or 15 years.”

“As a result, there has been more recruiting at high schools. And there will continue to be more. Recruiting at high schools takes longer. It is not as fast and hectic as recruiting through portals. Often times you have to build relationships that develop over several years. The consistency that we have had with certain parts of our staff for a long time makes a difference here too.”

Riley promised that the development push from the high school recruiting campaign will continue, with further improvements to USC's NIL operations having an even greater impact.

“It's become a bigger and bigger part of what we do here every year. And it's going to stay that way,” Riley said. “As long as our NIL continues to rise, we'll obviously continue to be as aggressive there as we need to be.”