Trojans Head coach Lincoln Riley Explains What Leaving the Pac-12 Means.

Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans brought in a whopping 19 players on signing day. The young players will battle it out to get starting positions in an already stacked team.

Though schools often target hometown talent when it comes to recruiting, this is an aspect of the Trojans that Riley noticed right away. He began to formalize what was not clicking for USC before, and it had to do with so many players being picked from California.

While that is not necessarily a terrible thing, being able to add talent from schools across the country is a valuable asset that most schools take advantage of. Riley understands that and how moving out of the Pac-12 can lend more diverse players not from California.

“The other thing that’s shifted too is people have got to realize we’re not in the Pac-12 anymore. Those days are over,” Riley said. “Look where we’re playing. Look at the competition we’re playing. Look at where a majority of our conference lies. That alone, with there’s just a lot of changes with college football in general where no state of players is just staying home like they used to. Now that is not me saying Southern California is not a priority. Hell yeah, it’s a priority. Absolutely, it’s a priority. It will always be. It’s the one state our coaches have an area to recruit — every single coach on our staff does. … But we are going to make sure we’re signing the right guys out of California. We’re not going to take them just because they’re our home state.”

The “right guys” should always be considered when it comes to any player. However, banking on just signing those from California is something that Riley wants to rectify.

The good news is that players have been heading to USC from all manner of schools. QB Will Howard came over from Kansas State, long snapper Hank Pepper transferred from Michigan State, and DE Nate Clifton came over from Vanderbilt.