Lincoln Riley addresses rumored NFL interest, explains why he stayed at USC

USC head coach Lincoln Riley has long been a popular name to be floated as a potential NFL coach, either as an offensive coordinator or head coach. To date, though, he’s demurred on his interest in those opportunities.

And that remained the case in 2024 as the NFL hiring cycle went full bore, as eight franchises hired a new head coach and Riley stayed put, even after a paltry season. He explained part of decision to stay at USC is his desire to win at the highest level there.

“I wanna get it right here,” Riley said on Thursday. “I really do. I want it really bad. Not for me, I just want it really bad for this program and I want it really bad for the current team, the former players, the former coaches, the fans, the university. I just — that’s why we left everything that we left. We want it really, really bad here.”

Riley’s had no shortage of successful teams under his control during his head coaching career, notably making the College Football Playoff multiple times while at Oklahoma. He had the Trojans on the precipice of a CFP berth in his first season in Los Angeles, but fell just short while quarterback Caleb Williams won the Heisman.

The 2023 season, however, fell apart at the end as the USC defense suffered significantly and Williams wasn’t quite the same superhuman he was in 2022. The end result was an 8-5 campaign.

He also explained that there are some changes needed in college football, yes, but nothing that will scare him away.

“I certainly — there’s some things with college football that need to get right, not just for coaches, for certainly far more than that,” Riley said. “Certainly I hope some of those things can get corrected to continue to make the job of everybody involved with college football, I don’t want to say easier, that’s not the right word, but maybe a little more manageable. And there’s certainly some challenges there but it’s not to the point, certainly for me it’s not to the point where I’m like, ‘To heck with college football.’ We still have a tremendous product, the game is still tremendous.”

The challenge will be significant going forward for Riley, as USC replaces Williams and heads into the Big Ten this year. But the man in charge of the Trojans seems intent on figuring out how to drum up a national-championship caliber team at USC, something that hasn’t been done for decades.

“I’m at the place I want to be,” Riley said.

Riley recently hyped up Williams ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft

Williams has been the presumed No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft ever since he won the Heisman Trophy after his sophomore season.

With Williams put under a microscope for his entire junior season at USC, his unique style of play has drawn comparisons to NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes. Riley, who has worked with Williams for his entire college career, agrees that there are comparisons to be made, but won’t go as far as saying they’re one in the same.

“What Patrick’s done, it’s a lofty comparison. There’s no question. I think he’s in a class of his own right now,” Riley said during an appearance on NFL Network on Monday. “But Caleb certainly has the ability to do some special things. And there are a lot of things that they do that are very similar. Their creativity, the athleticism, the throwing off different platforms, all the different arm angles, you know, they’re both able to do anything that they want physically and there’s not many people like that.

“Patrick has played a lot of ball and Patrick has continued to improve throughout his career. And if Caleb can do the same thing, he’ll have a chance to have a great impact on the league.”