Lincoln Riley updates USC's recruiting plan at quarterback

As USC‘s season comes to a close and with it potentially quarterback Caleb Williams‘ college career, all eyes are on who will succeed the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner.

Currently USC does not have a quarterback committed for the 2024 recruiting class, leading many to wonder if coach Lincoln Riley might be headed to the NCAA transfer portal after the season. Riley said things aren’t that cut and dried and any number of scenarios could play out in the coming weeks.

“There’s still an opportunity to sign somebody in high school,” he said. “There’s an opportunity to go grab a transfer. And there’s certainly an opportunity that we may not make any moves and stand pat where we’re at. Got to see how it unfolds here over the next several weeks and be ready, because there’s a lot of different things that could happen.”

If USC is going to take a high school quarterback, chances are it will have to flip a commitment from another school. There is only one uncommitted quarterback among the nation’s top 1,250 players in the 2024 recruiting cycle.

While that’s certainly not impossible, it’s a tougher ask at quarterback than many other positions.

There’s also the unthinkable possibility: What if Williams sticks around for another year?

“We’ve got a guy in our room that’s going to have to make a decision here at some point if he wants to enter the draft or not,” Riley said, leaving that door ever so slightly ajar.

Still, the conventional wisdom says that Williams is gone and USC will need someone else to step in, whether that’s from the transfer portal or elsewhere.

“Lot of things left to transpire there,” Riley said. “I don’t know that I’m in a position to say yes we would go after a portal quarterback and don’t know that I’m in a position to say that we wouldn’t, either. There’s a lot left to transpire. … We have a couple of quarterbacks in the room that have developed in our program.

“But you always know this day and age, especially at that position, you just never can assume anything. There’s 10 different combinations of what could happen here, and so I think you’re always ready to be able to react to it and having a plan ready so that when this happens or that happens you kind of know what your next step is. “

With that in mind, buckle up, USC fans. The next few weeks are likely to be quite the ride.