Urban Meyer believes Lincoln Riley, USC have 'officially lost momentum' in rebuild

Urban Meyer said Lincoln Riley lost momentum in the USC rebuild after a sub-par Year 3 with the Trojans.

Following a solid debut season, Riley and USC have only gone backwards since. That included a second year with Caleb Williams, a Heisman winning QB, in Year 2.

Can Riley turn it around? Meyer believes he can, but it’s going to be tough.

“I like Lincoln Riley, he’s always been very good to me,” Meyer said on The Herd. “I coached against him in one of his early games. They beat us when he was the head coach at Oklahoma. I love his offensive scheme. I’m saying all the right things because I believe it should work. Here’s the problem, Colin, once you lose momentum, it’s hard to get back. And USC lost momentum.” 

After Riley left Oklahoma for USC, it was a stunning decision across the college football landscape. Now, there are consistent questions about his future.

“I mean, they had it when they hired him, and a lot of energy, they officially have lost momentum in Southern California,” Meyer said. “What does that mean? Normally, it doesn’t end well. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt because it’s not his first rodeo. He did a really good job at Oklahoma. I think he’ll get it back, I really do. 

“But the minute you lose momentum, you got to really turn up the heat now to get that momentum back, and that’s got to be, you got to get some prized recruit. You got to win some games, because if you continue to lose momentum, this will end poorly.”

In the end, with NIL and the transfer portal, roster building is very different. And for Riley, perhaps adjustments have to be made to have successful teams in 2025 and beyond.

“I think everybody’s having to determine where they place value on certain positions, on certain people, and that’s just the nature of it,” Riley said. “The NFL’s been doing it forever. You see the discussion on how much should you pay a starting quarterback in the NFL. How much is a running back worth? How much is a receiver worth? If a guy has this type of production, then what percentage of a salary cap does that entitle them do, or does that make sense for the program to be able to give to them? It’s very cut and dry. It’s very production-based. Everybody’s going to have their philosophies.

“But for us, that’s the mindset you’ve got to have. We’ve got a salary cap and we’ve got to look at production and we’ve got to look at positions, we’ve got to look at value to the team. All of those things. It’s been fun, kind of putting that together, really deciding what our philosophies are going to be on it.”