{"id":871430,"date":"2026-04-21T21:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871430\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:00:22","slug":"usc-coach-lincoln-riley-sets-clear-expectation-of-excellence-entering-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871430\/","title":{"rendered":"USC coach Lincoln Riley sets clear expectation of excellence entering 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The USC Trojans remain one of the few Big Ten teams for which the jury is still out on their standing amongst college football’s elite programs.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

But for coach Lincoln Riley, his fifth season leading USC has the makings of a special one, he told On3.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTaking this over, you knew you had to go fight like hell just to try to get this window opened,\u201d Riley said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re at a point right now where there\u2019s a lot to be excited about and a lot in front of us. It\u2019s been a lot of work for a lot of people, a lot of commitment from a lot of people to get there, and it should be a lot of fun these next few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a major key for the Trojans is retention, which Riley was able to latch onto when quarterback Jayden Maiva <\/a>returned for his redshirt senior season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has made as much progress in two years as, honestly, any quarterback that I can remember having,\u201d Riley said. \u201cI still think there\u2019s still so much more room for growth with this kid, and that\u2019s what\u2019s exciting. He\u2019s played some really good ball, but I still think we\u2019ve seen just some flashes of how good this guy really can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Iowa football suffers major setback from NCAA stemming from recruiting violations in 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

Riley said he likes where his team sits entering this season. Now, it’s about getting over the collective CFP hump.<\/a><\/p>\n

“So you know the capabilities are here, you know the firepower is here, you know all the advantages that this place brings in so many ways,” Riley said. “And so it\u2019s like, all right, if we can maybe clean up some of the areas that need to get cleaned up or fix some of the things that maybe you get fixed, we\u2019ll feel that again. The country will feel that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley said that, should things remain status quo, anything is possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came here to win championships,\u201d Riley said. \u201c\u2029A lot of us have been fortunate enough to be a part of a lot of championships. We certainly didn\u2019t come here for anything less. We\u2019ve got to go buckle down and improve and really come together, but there\u2019s the makings of a championship-level football team in that building right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0<\/a>USC WR Makai Lemon: 2026 NFL Draft profile<\/a><\/p>\n

For now, though, only time will tell.<\/p>\n

More Big Ten news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The USC Trojans remain one of the few Big Ten teams for which the jury is still out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-871430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116444713693964978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871430","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=871430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}