TCU defensive lineman transfers to play for USC, Lincoln Riley

TCU transfer defensive lineman Earl Barquet will play for USC, he tweeted Monday. The redshirt sophomore totaled 21 tackles and three sacks over the past two seasons.

Barquet has plenty of familiarity with new Trojans coach Lincoln Riley after facing his Oklahoma teams the past two years. He saw limited action this year, recording one tackle against the Sooners on Oct. 16.

The defensive lineman was ranked as the No. 50 edge defender in the 2019 class according to On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He committed to the Horned Frogs over offers from Georgia, Oklahoma, Ole Miss and others.

Barquet is set to join a Trojans team that finished 4-8 this season and will miss a bowl game for the third time in the past four seasons. Riley is the fourth Trojans coach in the past decade, which has been one USC fans will mostly want to forget.

USC fired coach Clay Helton after a Week 2 loss to Stanford. Despite entering the season at No. 15 in the AP poll, the Trojans fell out following the loss to the Cardinal and never returned.

Riley is tasked with bringing USC back to its glory days. Trojans fans expect to compete for Pac-12 and national championships consistently, which hasn’t been the case lately. Since his arrival in Los Angeles, Riley has already flipped several highly touted recruits to USC.

Landing the TCU transfer defensive lineman is just the latest of many moves for the young coach. Although Barquet had a limited role in his time with TCU, the Trojans give him an opportunity to make more of an impact.

With Early Signing Day soon approaching, we will see just how much the addition of Riley affects the Trojans’ 2022 recruiting class.