Lincoln Riley shares his motivation for crafting USC's culture

In a year of impressive first-year debuts, Lincoln Riley‘s crafting of USC‘s culture to produce such a solid season might have been the most impressive. The Trojans were on the doorstep of the College Football Playoff and managed to win 11 games.

It was a stark turnaround for a program that had fallen by the wayside in recent years.

“Well, we transformed it. It’s never one person,” Riley said at Pac-12 Media Days. “Yeah, I mean, listen, coming to USC, the decision for all of us, whether myself, the assistant coaches, the staff members that came, the players that stayed, the new players that came in, I think we all had to recognize it for the opportunity that it was.”

That opportunity was a chance to restore the glory days in Los Angeles, so Riley got to work crafting USC’s culture.

That task was made significantly easier when quarterback Caleb Williams made the decision to follow Riley to USC, a decision he explained was necessary for his development to continue without a hitch. The move certainly paid off for both parties.

Riley never looked at the USC rebuild as something that had to take years.

“Some people can look at a program like that and say, Well, it’s been down a few years, only won this many games the year before,” Riley said. “Some people see negative things and some people see opportunity. We saw, all of us saw, opportunity. I think there was a common belief that the combination of the people we have, the program and setup at SC, could do something really, really special.”

In fact, the entire setup for the USC job made it appealing to Riley.

In crafting USC’s culture the right way, he would be able to reproduce some of the loftiest moments in school history. The Trojans aren’t all the way there just yet, but they got pretty close in just a year.

Continuing to write that story now is key.

“There’s no story in life or sports any better than a comeback and a rise,” Riley said. “To get a chance to be a part of that, embrace that, it reinvigorates you. It’s exciting.

“Like I said, not only do we get a chance to do it, but we get a chance to do it at one of the most important programs in our sport. I think we’ve all recognized that for what it is. We all appreciate it. I think it motivates every single one of us to continue the climb.”