Report: USC working with compliance to promote Kliff Kingsbury to active assistant coach during Lincoln Riley illness

USC coach Lincoln Riley is battling an illness serious enough to keep him away from the team for a second consecutive practice, and the Trojans are reportedly making plans to activate Kliff Kingsbury as a new assistant coach.

With Riley off the field, USC is down one of its allotted on-field assistant coaching positions, with Dennis Simmons now working as the acting head coach.

That could pave the way for Kingsbury to temporarily step in as an assistant if the compliance department gets everything sorted out, according to a report from Antonio Morales of The Athletic.

Kingsbury was added to the staff in an off-field capacity this offseason, and Riley discussed some of the benefits of the move after his arrival.

“He’s obviously got familiarity with our offense. He’s got familiarity with a lot of the members on our staff. So I think that that certainly made sense. And yeah, I mean, obviously his experience, both on the both on the offensive side will be very helpful in terms of game planning, some of those things that they can do off the field, have another set of eyes, they’re very, very helpful. And then obviously the added benefit with a guy like Kliff is a guy that’s been the head coach at this level and at the professional level, somebody that had to sit in that chair and make those decisions.

“Whether it’s something on game day or it’s something just through the course of a normal week, it’s always great to have another opinion. And then kind of an outside perspective that you know, that maybe it’s not tied to one position … coach Kingsbury was a really great get and it’s gonna make us a lot better.”

One of the reasons Kliff Kingsbury would have been brought on board was in anticipation of a possible future opening on the staff. And while this probably wasn’t the scenario Riley envisioned when he signed Kingsbury up, it’s certainly a convenient stop-gap measure.

USC plays at California on Saturday in a game that kicks off at 4 p.m. ET.

The Trojans would obviously want to have Riley back before then, but in the interim Kingsbury should be able to help steady the ship.

“I know he’s really invested in what we’re doing,” Riley said this offseason. “Really excited … Obviously what he’s accomplished in the game … this is not something he’s just gonna come to do because he likes some people … He sees the opportunity. This is a cool statement for our program, that a guy like that would want to come take this role and help this program take another big step and he recognizes what’s going on. So just another example of where we’re headed. Another great moment for the program.”