{"id":745719,"date":"2026-02-11T22:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/745719\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T22:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:11:12","slug":"lincoln-riley-on-uscs-no-1-recruiting-class-they-want-to-win-championships-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/745719\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln Riley on USC’s No. 1 recruiting class: ‘They want to win championships here’"},"content":{"rendered":"

USC<\/a> set its sights on signing an elite recruiting class early on in the 2026 cycle and it paid off. The Trojans officially claimed the No. 1 class in the Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Rankings<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time since the 2006 cycle that USC has claimed a top-ranked recruiting haul. For head coach Lincoln Riley<\/a>, signing a haul this ballyhooed was just the next step in taking the program back to the top of the college football mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s another example of what\u2019s been happening here over the last three-plus years. I think it\u2019s an example of what we\u2019re building, it\u2019s an example of these people all believing in this vision, believing in the direction of USC football,\u201d Riley told On3\u2019s J.D. PicKell on \u2018The Hard Count.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

The likes of Notre Dame, Ohio State and Oregon all made big runs to try and dethrone the Trojans from the No. 1 spot late in the cycle, but they held strong, thanks to a 35-man class<\/a> that features 22 blue-chip signees in total.<\/p>\n

Golden State natives make up a bulk of the class. Of the 35 signees, 20 played their final year of high school football in California. That includes five-star tight end Mark Bowman<\/a> and three other top-100 prospects.<\/p>\n

Riley and his staff prioritized local targets, but that didn\u2019t stop them from plucking top talent all over the country, too. Ten other states are represented in the class, with Texas, Ohio, Illinois and Colorado all having multiple representatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see that many guys, whether it be \u2014 obviously so much of the class was centered here in Southern California, we were obviously able to go get some guys outside of our state lines at a few of the key positions we think are gonna be great Trojans as well,\u201d Riley said. <\/p>\n

Newcomers \u2018want to do it for USC\u2019<\/p>\n

What really has Riley excited about the class is the sheer number of signees that are already on campus and ready to roll for the spring. USC locked down just about all of its class during the December signing period.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt adds a lot of validity to what you\u2019re doing, and then I think the added benefit for us is such a high percentage of these guys \u2014 over 30 of them \u2014 are here for spring ball,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the ability to not just recruit and sign these guys, but to get them here, to develop them and to get these guys ready to contribute to this football program right now, was really important to us and I think it\u2019s very key going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The class is, of course, loaded. Five-Star Plus+ EDGE Luke Wafle<\/a> out of New Jersey finished as the No. 1 recruit in the Rivals300 and figures to make an early impact in SoCal. Rivals five-star defensive lineman Jamieon Winfield<\/a> and four-star wide receiver Boobie Feaster<\/a> were two of the top prospects in Texas.<\/p>\n

USC\u2019s class features 12 signees who finished as a top-10 recruit at their respective position. Riley is excited about seeing this group mingle with the returning talent that he feels has the Trojans on the cusp of something special.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a heck of a group, there\u2019s a lot of talent,\u201d he said. \u201cThey want to do it for USC, they want to win championships here, they want to do it together. That was really the main thing that drove this class as it started coming together. When you\u2019ve got a group of guys like that, then you\u2019re putting them into a team that already has a lot of people that think that way and has a good culture and understanding about it \u2026 you like how that sounds, it makes a lot of sense and now we\u2019ve got to bring those two groups together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USC set its sights on signing an elite recruiting class early on in the 2026 cycle and it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[24952,7,105643,34232,92396,24614,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-745719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-boobie-feaster-26-desoto","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jaimeon-winfield-26-richardson","11":"tag-lincoln-riley-02-muleshoe","12":"tag-luke-wafle-26-hun-school","13":"tag-mark-bowman-26-mater-dei","14":"tag-ncaa","15":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116054294745527931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}