Lincoln Riley addresses reports of USC's interest in Courtney Morgan

Earlier this week, Alabama and general manager Courtney Morgan agreed to a three-year, $825,000 contract extension after Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans reportedly attempted to hire the Crimson Tide staffer.

While Morgan will remain in Tuscaloosa for the foreseeable future, Riley touched on the importance of having someone fill the general manager and other new off-field staff positions to help ensure his program’s success.

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“These off the field types of roles have gotten more popular,” Riley said on Thursday. “They’ve become more valuable as time has went on, and that started a long time ago whether it’s people on player development, whether it’s recruiting staff or personnel staff. I mean look at all these programs 10 years ago, look at them five years ago and look at them now. I see no reason, given the fact that all these things that have changed — I mean, they’re going to continue to grow. These support staffs are continuing to get bigger.”

Currently, Dave Emerick, USC’s senior associate athletic director, holds the title of football general manager. While he has spent over two decades in college football, his main position of associate AD does not allow his full attention to be on the football program at all times.

Signing someone like Morgan, whose sole role for the Crimson Tide is to be the general manager, would help in that respect. Still, Riley believes there are pieces in place within the USC athletic department who can already help in that regard.

“I think those staff [roles] are going to always continue to evolve. It’s been great to have [AD Jennifer Cohen] and [deputy AD] Jay [Hilbrands] from an administrative side. It’s great to have you know Dave [Emerick] on our staff, who has been part of this and many other staffs,” Riley continued. “He has been a chief of staff, that was really when he worked for Coach [Mike] Leach, and that was kind of a big deal as he was in charge of building staffs, researching kind of the different trends, both in the NFL and college, how these staffs are involved and so right there, I’ve got three people that we can really rely on to not only look at what we’re doing now, but planning for the future.

“And so we’re trying to live in the present and be present, but also think ahead. Whether it’s hiring staff members, whether it’s our outfitting the new facility, we’re trying to be very forward thinking.”