USC HC Lincoln Riley visits 2026 5-star QB Ryder Lyons
Folsom (Calif.) five-star quarterback Ryder Lyons continues to work through his recruitment and coaches from around the country are making their way to see the 6-foot-2 signal-caller.
USC head coach Lincoln Riley is the latest to make his way to Folsom to see Lyons, the No. 10 overall prospect and No. 3 QB in the 2026 cycle, per the On3 Industry Ranking.
The Trojans continue to trend for Lyons in the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM), though his recruitment has certainly slowed compared to where things were at back in the fall. Regardless, USC is pushing hard for the in-state recruit.
“To be honest everything’s kind of confusing,” Lyons said of his recruitment to ScoopDuck’s Max Torres earlier this month. “I pretty much had a top five coming out and then stuff changes fast.”
There’s layers to Lyons’ recruitment. After graduating high school, he’s likely taking a year-long mission trip with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, delaying his enrollment until spring of 2027. He’s planning to graduate early this coming December.
USC has plenty of competition for the five-star, too. BYU has legacy ties with the Lyons’ family. Oregon has long been in the thick of his recruitment. Ole Miss is the SEC school standing out the most thus far — head coach Lane Kiffin is one of the many coaches that’s been out to California to visit Lyons lately. Michigan, North Carolina and Washington have all sent coaches out to Folsom, too.
The Trojans began to trend for Lyons in the fall
USC signed Ryder’s brother, four-star tight end Walker Lyons, back in 2023. Add in Lincoln Riley’s impressive résumé with QB development, and the Trojans have looked like a tasty option for Lyons for some time.
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“USC is high on my list. There is a lot to like about USC. You have coach Riley. He has coached great quarterbacks that have won the Heisman Trophy and been drafted No. 1 in the NFL Draft. He is a great offensive mind and the defense is now playing at a different level,” Lyons told On3’s Chad Simmons in September.
“Then USC is a high academic school,” he added. “If something didn’t work out, then I would have the education from a school like USC. Other schools are still recruiting me hard, and I am talking to other schools, but USC is definitely high on my list.”
Lyons himself said a commitment was on the horizon then, but that’s clearly been pushed back. Four months later, though, and four predictions remain logged in favor of the Trojans landing the 2024 Gatorade California Player of the Year.
Riley is now back in Folsom checking in on Lyons. QB recruiting was tumultuous for the USC staff last cycle, but they still managed to sign Corona (Calif.) Centennial five-star Husan Longstreet. Even though he likely won’t get to Los Angeles as soon as he graduates, Lyons is the next big target for the West Coast QB hub.
Lyons has an On3 NIL Valuation of $474K. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.