Lincoln Riley’s recruiting game has seen a whirlwind of change since he took over the Trojans. The class of 2022 was about to sign when he joined the program. It wasn’t a surprise that USC didn’t even have a top-50 class. That changed in 2023. A no. 8 class, first in the Pac-12, beating even Dan Lanning’s Oregon. Then the conference change happened, and the ranking slipped a little. From a top-10 finish to a top-20. The surprise? No 5-star recruits.

Riley addressed that in the 2025 class. A 13th-place finish and a 5-star recruit in Husan Longstreet. All that recruiting progress, the hiring of Chad Bowden, and a focus on in-state talent are finally providing dividends in the 2026 class. So far, they are the No. 2 class. But what would happen if one key piece of the class decommits?

Riley,

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