Lincoln Riley’s track record with quarterbacks limits urgency in 2023

USC quarterback Caleb Williams has a chance to further write himself down in the history books as one of the best quarterbacks of the modern college football era this season. There’s a lot on the table for the Washington D.C. native to add to his already pretty solid resume — a second Heisman Trophy, a Pac-12 title, a College Football Playoff appearance and even a national title are all on the table.

There will be a lot of pressure for the Trojans and head coach Lincoln Riley to make the most of the season. But as On3’s Andy Staples told J.D. PicKell last week on The Hard Count, this won’t be the team’s only future shot at glory.

“I think they’re going to be okay,” Staples said. “I think probably they’re going to have other good quarterbacks after Caleb Williams so I don’t think they have to do it this year. But it’ll probably be easier to do it this year in the Pac 12 than it will be once they get into the Big Ten. That said, this is about as deep as a Pac-12 as I can remember. I’m not as worried about anything going on with USC is offense. I think they’re going to be fine offensively.”

Quarterbacks have never been an issue for Lincoln Riley during his time as a head coach. With players like Williams, Baker Mayfield and Jalen Hurts, he has always found a successful signal-caller. Even with Spencer Rattler and his ups-and-downs, he was 15-2 at Oklahoma.

The question has always been on the defensive side of the football. It was the problem with the Sooners and was a problem last year with the Trojans.

“Is that defense better?” Staples said. “Can they tackle as the season goes on? I feel like the body types have definitely improved on the d-line. You go get Anthony Lucas. You go get Bear Alexander out of the transfer portal. I’d like to see more of that coming out of high school because that’s how Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama, that’s how they build national title teams. But I like where they’re going with that. I need to see it on the field defensively though because they’re going to be playing some really high powered offenses in the Pac-12. To get through the Pac-12, win the league, you’re going to have to deal with Utah. You’re going to have to deal with Washington. You have to deal with Oregon. Oregon State is going to be very good in a very physical way. This will be a good test for them.”