Players Mentioned
USC Head Coach Lincoln Riley's Top Quotes At Big Ten Media Day: Pete Carroll, Notre Dame, Recruiting Strategy & More
July 24, 2025 | Football
A Push for Carroll in the College Football Hall of Fame
After serving as USC's head coach for 9 seasons starting in 2000, current Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll is ineligible for the College Football Hall of Fame by one year. Coach Riley emphasized on Thursday that Carroll's accomplishments as a Trojan coach should make him eligible to receive one of college football's highest honors.ÂLast year at this event in Indianapolis…myself and many others spoke on Mike Leach's candidacy for the [College Football] Hall of Fame. And at that point, I know a lot of us expressed that we felt like there are some people where their impact on college football goes beyond maybe any prerequisites for an honor like the Hall of Fame…I also would like to stay in that lane and really advocate for the candidacy of Pete Carroll into the College Football Hall of Fame.
I know he's one year short on the requirement, but [it's] hard to imagine a guy that's had an impact like Coach Carroll had on college football and it's a little difficult for me, and I think a lot of my colleagues to imagine a Hall of Fame that exists without him and his impact.
Searching for SoCal Stars
Garnering one of the top recruiting classes in the nation for 2026, Riley shared more Thursday about the program's strategy to recruit "home-grown" prospects.
I think we all knew deep down, long term, that when you're at USC, the core values and the core beliefs in terms of how you build a program is always going to start from your high school recruiting, specifically in Los Angeles and in Southern California and then branching out all over the country, and then your ability to develop that and then supplementing it at times with the portal. And that's where we want to be long term. It's always where we have wanted to be long term.
Maiava Making Strides
On Thursday, Riley praised quarterback Jayden Maiava for his resolve last season. The head coach noted how the redshirt junior has earned the respect of his peers through his hard work and humble attitude.
​​​​​Really proud of Jayden. He started four games for us last year, all four against good football teams, all four against really good defenses. He gave us a chance to win all four. We were able to pick off three of them. Made some huge plays, made some unbelievable plays in those games. Showed a lot of resiliency, a lot of toughness, his arm talent, the decisiveness in which he plays and how he sees things is really unique and has a chance to be really special.
Beefing Up the Defensive Line
If you look at the defense, and statistically, we were one of the most improved defenses in the country last year, how do you take that step from being one of the most improved to flat out being one of the best? That was the number one target for us… And I think we've done our part on the roster, and now we've got to develop them and go put it on the field this fall.
Under new defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn, the Trojans saw significant improvement in just one year. USC intends to continue the momentum through new additions to its defensive line, such as redshirt sophomore Jamaal Jarrett, redshirt senior Keeshawn Silver and freshman Jahkeem Stewart.
When you play a schedule like we play it's paramount that [depth] is great, because, if not, it's going to show up and get you at some point. And so I think the depth, the talent level, and the size of the defensive line, I mean, there's honestly, really no comparison to this time 12 months ago.
Fighting On for the Jeweled Shillelagh
When asked about USC's historic rivalry with Notre Dame, Riley discussed the complexity and importance of scheduling the series in today's era of college football.
It's one of those situations right now where the two schools are in radically different situations. I think we can all agree with that, with the one having a conference affiliation, and one not, I think there's a million reasons why that we should very seriously as a college football community, that we should adopt the automatic qualifying in terms of the college football playoff. And this might be the most important one right is that we give every reason for college football to preserve non conference games that mean a lot to the history of the game and to the fan bases and the former players and everybody that's been associated with it. So I'm very hopeful that we can get there, and I'm very hopeful that we play this game forever.
The rivalry, all these rivalries, mean a great deal to me. They mean a great deal to anybody that cares about college football. Do I want to play the game? Hell yeah, I want to play the game. Absolutely. It's one of the reasons I came here, but also my allegiance, and my loyalty is not to Notre Dame, and it's not to anybody else. I'm the head football coach at USC, and I'm going to back USC, and I'm going to do everything possible that I can in my power to make USC as good as it can.
