State of USC’s football program: Overhaul complete. Now comes the ‘critical’ stage

Every aspect of Lincoln Riley’s football program, every plan, every decision, every note from every season he’s spent as a head coach is accessible from an iPad that he has at the ready.

At Oklahoma, any given season’s notes might take up between 150 and 200 pages on Riley’s iPad. His first campaign as USC’s coach required, well … a few more.

“Year 1 here,” Riley said this week, “I had over 600.”

Riley spent some time poring through those notes since USC’s Cotton Bowl loss, assessing from every angle how far the team had come in his first year. It was the first chance he’d had to do much reflecting, Riley said, and it became clear in that process how much he might’ve missed with all the macro changes being made.

Sitting down with reporters this past week, Riley was blunt while assessing where the program stood when he arrived. The roster was worse, in spots, than expected. Certain aspects of the program, such as nutrition, were lagging way behind. There was no means for quantifying accountability with players. All those systems needed to be put in place.

“When you take over something new that also requires a complete overhaul, it’s amazing how much there is to do in the first year,” Riley said. “You’re so into every little part of it, I think maybe you lose — or not lose, it may be difficult to find some of that overall perspective. Every little thing has to be changed and answered for.”

The changes that were made helped spur a stunning turnaround as USC went from 4-8 to winning 11 games in Riley’s first season. But at times, Riley explained, the season felt like “a race you can’t ever get ahead in.”

Year 2 shouldn’t require so much catching up. The processes are already in place. The same staff, including embattled defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, remains intact. And as Riley sees it, the talent level of the roster should improve “dramatically,” whether by virtue of a more robust recruiting class or the 11 transfers who have already signed on.

“Now,” he said, “there’s proof of concept.”

The next steps in that plan came into clearer focus this week. Here’s what we know heading into an offseason Riley says will be “one of the more critical times for the program.”