LOS ANGELES – From Jan. 22-26, a period of about 87 hours and 3,662 miles traversed, Lincoln Riley was in eight states in the span of less than four days.
Such is life for USC’s head coach, trying to plant the seeds for a 2025 recruiting class that already includes top-ranked Georgia quarterback Julian Lewis – assuming they can keep him from flipping to Georgia or another Big Ten program, which will be a tall order. Still, Riley has hit the recruiting trail across this second permissible-contact period with a level of ferocity hardly matched across the country, his face popping up across Twitter the past couple weeks from gleeful high schools commemorating his visits. Such ferocity, in fact, that it practically requires a degree in cartography to figure out the man’s travel itinerary.
Take this, for example. On Jan. 24, Riley spent the morning visiting 2025 running back Marquise Davis and 2025 cornerback Trey McNutt at Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights in Cleveland, respectively. He then flew into Huntington, West Virginia, and drove up to Ironton, Ohio, as detailed by Ironton High coach Trevon Pendleton, then somehow made it to Chicago that night – about 450 miles away – to visit Fenwick High. The only explanation for execution of such activity, it seems, is witchcraft. Or a private jet. That, too.
From visits posted on social media (it’s quite possible there are more), The Southern California News Group charted every Riley stop across the past two weeks on the recruiting trail in the bulletin board below, using mapping service pinmaps.net.
The details of Riley’s travel demonstrate a clear effort to build a recruiting presence in certain areas across the country, and further establish his philosophy in building USC’s foundation coming off a disappointing year – most starkly, hitting the trenches in Georgia and traversing Big Ten country.
“Now, they’re going to be right in the spotlight of Midwestern football,” said Pendleton,…
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