Make California Post a Preferred Source It hasn’t even been a year since Lincoln Riley landed his first No.1 national recruiting class at USC, and it’s already looking like it might be his last.
Urban Meyer, a three-time national championship-winning coach, was on his show, “The Triple Option,” on Friday and called USC football an “injured animal.”
Meyer was referring to USC as an injured animal due to Riley’s inability to win the big game and make the College Football Playoff.
Since Riley’s arrival at USC in 2022, he’s gone 5-15 against ranked opponents. When he was at Oklahoma, he went 15-6 against ranked opponents.
“The injured animal is this. Texas, when I was at Ohio State, when I was really struggling, I put four coaches in Texas. And we got the three top players one year. The three top players went to Ohio State,” Meyer said. “Normally speaking, that’s not gonna happen.”
Meyer said before Kirby Smart became the head coach at Georgia, the university fell on hard times. Smart used the same method as Meyer and landed what he called “some of the best players” in the state.
“So while I was on my board, I called it the ‘Injured animal,'” Meyer said. “Right now, there might be an injured animal in Los Angeles, boys. And that’s USC.”
So far, USC hasn’t lost any recruits after its brutal 41-27 loss at home to Oregon.
But given the way the Trojans have been playing this year, things can change.
Last Saturday was a must-win game for the Trojans to prove that they had arrived, in what was Riley’s most impactful class as head coach.
USC is already enjoying the pleasantries of its most recent class. Defensive end Luke Wafle and tight end Mark Bowman have already made an impact on this season’s team.
But the brutal stretch continues Saturday. USC is hosting Washington — another program that Riley has yet to beat since his arrival in 2022.
After Washington, USC will play crucial road games against Penn State, Wisconsin, No. 6 Indiana and No. 23 UCLA. The Trojans also are set to host No. 5 Ohio State on Oct. 31.
With the 2027 season on the horizon, 247Sports has USC listed as the No.18 recruiting class in the country, with one five-star and eight four-star recruits committed.
