Lincoln Riley 'thrilled' with USC's NIL gains and House of Victory collective
Lincoln Riley has been direct this offseason when it comes to where the USC football program stood relative to elite programs when he arrived in November of 2021.
“We are playing catch-up,” Riley said at Big Ten Media Day. “We’re playing catch-up in facilities. We’re playing catch-up in NIL. We’ve been playing catch-up in resources within the program. We’ve been playing catch-up in damn near every way that you could think of. But when we catch up, and we are going to catch up, that’s when the things that this place has that other don’t shows up again. And it’s coming.”
The Trojans got their first small taste of catching up in facilities on Friday, when USC began fall camp and was able to utilize the new full-length turf field that has been installed next to the full-length, grass Howard Jones field. The full football facility won’t be built until the summer of 2026, but the extra practice field space will be significant over the next two years.
USC is also moving into the “haves” when it comes to NIL. USC athletic director Jen Cohen spoke highly of the House of Victory collective and what it has achieved over the past year in her State of Troy message on Friday.
“Our partnership with House of Victory, the official collective of USC Athletics, has never been stronger, and we truly believe no collective in the country has enhanced its profile, operations, and results more in the past year than HOV,” Cohen wrote. “For the 2023-2024 academic year, HOV exceeded all its fundraising goals, and our donors stepped up to help us more than double our total funds from the previous year, putting USC in the upper tier of NIL collective support nationally.”
Riley was asked after Friday’s football practice whether he was happy with the state of NIL at USC right now.
“No, I’m not happy, I’m thrilled with it,” Riley said. “The percentage gains and the momentum that it has created, the job that House of Victory has done, the job that people that work there, the people here, the Trojan family that support it…It’s incredible gains. You hope for it. Do you expect it? I don’t ever want to not expect bit things here. This is USC. But we’re talking substantial, substantial gains, momentum…And not just in the dollar figure, but how we operate, that confidence of our team, our program in it, our recruits, I mean, it couldn’t be higher. They have just done a phenomenal job. It’s gonna continue to get better like we expect all parts of this. But I cannot say enough about the job that House of Victory and everyone that’s supported it have done. And we need people to obviously continue to do it. It makes a difference. It matters.”
