Lincoln Riley claims USC lost recruits over NIL deals

NIL has become a dominant talking point in the discussion around college athletics. While it isn’t supposed to be used to recruit a player to schools, several coaches are claiming that it has impacted the 2023 recruiting cycle. Among them is the USC head coach, Lincoln Riley.

During his press conference to recap the Early Signing Day class, Lincoln Riley explained that he felt the team lost recruits due to NIL.

“Of course we did, but everybody did,” Lincoln Riley said.

“The reality is just like every university is different every family is different. Everybody’s priorities are different. Who am I to say this is a correct priority and this is incorrect? There’s no judgement on it.”

The importance of signing recruits, according to Lincoln Riley, is making sure that their priorities align with one another. Because of that, it’s possible to lose recruits due to NIL.

“Everybody’s got their priorities at the end of the day, and we’re looking for people whose priorities align with USC’s priorities. And USC’s priorities are gonna be about the team first. It’s gonna be about the university and education first. NIL is gonna be a part of it here and a tremendous opportunity, but it’s not ever gonna be number one on the priority list. And, if it is, listen, it’s not gonna be the right fit here.”

Lincoln Riley emphasized the need to find a fit that works at USC. He also said that team success comes first, and with that honors like awards, the draft, and NIL will come. This is a point that he tried to drive home, especially that USC has been successful in NIL.

“Listen, we put out an NIL, just kind of based on our experience in the first few months, we had an NIL projection here in terms of what we felt our team would earn during this first season,” Lincoln Riley continued. “And I can tell you, we thought we were pretty aggressive with our projection. We were about half of what it ended up being. I mean it ended up being about double what we projected. So, our players have done very well.”

Mike Bohn on how close USC is to reaching his vision

Athletic director Mike Bohn had a clear vision for USC when he hired Lincoln Riley. Now, after the first regular season there, he discussed with Trojans Live how close USC is to reaching his vision for the program.

“No question. I think that intensity of interest wins,” Mike Bohn said.

“You think back of how this season really rolled out, and you look at the UCLA game. My hats off to UCLA, what did they do? They treated us with a lot of respect. They put our band behind the goal post, just like their band was right behind the goal post. Hats off to them, and my hats off to our fans and their fans, and people in LA that maybe just like both schools or maybe don’t pick one. Just watch great college football. The fact that that game was on a national broadcast. Everybody’s seeing it, with A-crew in town. It was awesome.”