One thing you hear from college football fan bases all the time: "Don't fire the coach! The recruiting class needs to be saved!" The implication behind that statement is that saving the recruiting class and preventing decommitments is the first and most urgent need for the program. This is not a fringe position. It gets said and heard all the time. USC football needs to confront this and push back against it with Lincoln Riley clearly outing himself as a coach who is no longer ready for prime time. He was at Oklahoma, but after 2022, he hasn't been ready at USC, and he needs to go.
USC football recruiting class isn't delivering
USC had the No. 1 recruiting class for 2026. What is that class producing so far? Some, but certainly not enough - not nearly enough. Trent Mosley has been good, but he got
contained by Wisconsin's corners on Saturday. Luke Wafle has made some splash plays, but he hasn't been relentlessly consistent. These are good players, but not great ones, and the overall product remains fundamentally mediocre.
The recruiting class has to be coached well for it to matter
Recruiting ratings are what they are, but they don't mean anything unless or until the coaching staff takes all of that potential and turns it into actualized results. Lincoln Riley and USC football aren't turning this recruiting class into something special. They are creating an ordinary product which shows no real improvement from 2025. Valuing the recruits themselves without getting a change at the head coaching position is a strategy doomed to fail. We're seeing that play out right now at USC.
Lincoln Riley doesn't develop players
Except for quarterbacks, Lincoln Riley has shown he doesn't generally develop players very well. Line play, defense, Waymond Jordan at running back, depth pieces at receiver - look around you. Where are players developing? A typical Lincoln Riley season features stagnation, not development. In October, when players should be retaining knowledge and becoming progressively sharper, they don't make forward strides under Riley and his USC staff.
When a week off makes things worse, not better
Lincoln Riley and his USC staff had two weeks to get their players healthy and drill down on the basics, the fundamentals. Great coaches will use those two weeks to improve and polish their players. For USC, it led to a complete collapse and deterioration against Wisconsin. Why would anyone want to save a recruiting class if it means keeping the coach who can't improve players over the course of a season?
USC freshmen aren't getting wiser or stronger
There's a familiar saying in college sports: "By the end of a freshman year, freshmen are no longer freshmen." The end of a first season brings about wisdom, knowledge and experience. Freshmen cease to be freshmen in the sense that they are no longer newcomers. They "get it." The light goes on. They begin to really understand how to play. Great coaches ensure that freshmen are no longer freshmen late in their first season. This was Lincoln Riley's chance, after the week off, to turn freshmen into experienced players who no longer doubted themselves. He could not have failed more conclusively and comprehensively. Again, why save a recruiting class if keeping Lincoln Riley is the condition at the other end?
Bob Chesney and UCLA football
Look at Bob Chesney at UCLA. He has a backup quarterback on the field. He doesn't have top talent on offense. It doesn't matter. UCLA is tough, physical, relentless, and fundamentally prepared. The Bruins are doing more with less. Lincoln Riley is doing less with more. Why would anyone want to save a recruiting class to keep Lincoln Riley? Better to lose a recruiting class but bring in a Chesney-level coach who knows what he's doing.
Chad Bowden is the guy who gets the players for USC, anyway
Here's the other thing about "saving the recruiting class" at USC: It's not even Lincoln Riley who is doing this. Chad Bowden is bringing in the players. He, not Riley, improved the recruiting process. Riley just isn't central to the need to save recruiting classes or roster integrity. Chad Bowden is.
Negotiated buyout settlement
Before firing Lincoln Riley, USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen needs to knock down Lincoln Riley's buyout number so that the school has more financial room to work with in hiring a new coach. This process needs to begin in earnest. It's a multi-step process, and step one is the buyout negotiation, not the firing itself.
Ohio State game
If Lincoln Riley gets blown out by an Ohio State team playing with a backup quarterback, this debacle needs to end right away. If USC loses a close game, Riley doesn't have to be fired right away.
November
USC plays Ohio State on October 31 and doesn't play again until November 14 at Indiana. The two weeks between Ohio State and Indiana would give USC and Jen Cohen a chance to make a move with Lincoln Riley if this ship continues to sink. The Trojans need to be serious about who they are and what they need to do. We will soon see if this administration is ready to handle the decision we have speculated about for the past few years.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Saving 2027 recruiting class cannot be USC's top priority | Opinion
