LOS ANGELES — When you’ve done something for 20 straight years, Lincoln Riley smiled wistfully, it’s a little strange to let go.
For the majority of his coaching career, the USC coach has been recognized across the college football landscape primarily as an offensive guru – a quarterback whisperer – just as much as his head coach’s headset. Along came Baker Mayfield, and Kyler Murray, and Jalen Hurts, and Caleb Williams at Oklahoma, and Riley built Air Raid variations at Oklahoma and USC that morphed talented men into giants of the game. Riley was the official quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma, and he was the official quarterbacks coach at USC, because this was his gift.
But times have changed. Riley is trying to build a program from the ground up at USC, entering the third year of a rebuild after a disappointing 8-5 season in 2023, recognizing sweeping change was needed in coaching and personnel. And that change has involved himself.
For the first time in his head coaching career, Lincoln Riley is no longer also his program’s official QBs coach.
“I knew, at some point, I would probably want to have a quarterback coach,” Riley said at USC’s first practice of spring football on Tuesday, turning reflective for a moment. “I didn’t feel like it was the right thing in the beginning (at USC), because I felt like the best thing in the beginning to help us win was to make sure that that piece was right – I think that probably showed a lot in that first year.”
“But I knew eventually, and especially as some of these roles have changed and more has gotten thrown on our plate, I knew eventually I want to just have more flexibility.”
In a post-Williams world at USC, the honor has fallen to Luke Huard, a former collegiate quarterback who had served as USC’s inside wide receivers coach for two years. Last season, Riley kicked around the idea of ceding quote-unquote official QB coach-duties to Huard; they ended up holding off. But in the…
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