USC (9-3), ranked No. 16 within the AP ballot, is getting ready to play Texas Christian (9-4) on Dec. 30 within the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. USC completed 7-2 in its second season within the Massive Ten and gained 4 of its final 5 video games, the one setback throughout that stretch being a 42-27 loss to Oregon, which is the No. 5 seed within the Faculty Soccer Playoff.
Riley introduced that security Kamari Ramsey, receivers Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane, tight finish Lake McRee and linebacker Eric Gentry won’t play within the Alamo Bowl. Lane declared for the NFL draft on Monday.
“Anthony Lucas and Bishop Fitzgerald want to play in the game but are dealing with injuries and trying to get back … we’ll see how that goes,” Riley mentioned. “Kilian O’Connor and Elijah Paige and Jahkeem Stewart all had surgery and will be ready to roll.”
Requested about signing the No. 1 recruiting class for 2026, Riley mentioned: “It was a great day. We tried to keep the focus on building next year’s team. The amount of guys that we signed is a big portion of it and as we start to look ahead … half of our day and maybe even more is pointing towards next year and coming years. Meanwhile, obviously getting ready for this bowl game. It was a lot of hard work to add talent and people who care about this place and starting to put next year’s team together has been exciting here these last few weeks.”
Riley has a 35-27 report in his 4 seasons at USC and is hoping to enhance his bowl report to 3-1. He guided the Trojans to wins within the 2023 Vacation Bowl and 2024 Las Vegas Bowl.
Riley watched the CIF state Open Division bowl sport between Santa Margarita (coached by former Trojans quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer) and De La Salle on Saturday and was impressed by the efficiency of USC commit Trent Mosley, who had 11 catches for 183 yards and two touchdowns and a speeding landing within the Eagles’ 47-13 win.
“He was someone we targeted very early on,” Riley mentioned. “I thought he was super impressive and it was important. He’s one of the best receivers in the country. He’s proven that and he just played out of his mind. It’s a great family and he’s a really smart kid.”
Requested what recommendation he offers to gamers who’re deciding what to do subsequent of their careers, Riley mentioned: “Yes, it’s an important decision. The guys that make the right decision no matter what it is get a leg up on the rest of their lives. Consequently, a wrong decision can be catastrophic. That’s the world we all live in. I just try to educate them on their options. I don’t like telling guys you should do this or you shouldn’t do that. It’s more about, here’s this option, this is what it would look like, here’s what you need to consider. Sometimes the decision’s pretty clear one way or another, other times it’s not. I try to give them as much guidance as I possibly can.”
Provided that USC shall be lacking fairly a number of gamers who had been key contributors all through the season, Riley will not be ruling out the opportunity of youthful gamers seeing motion in opposition to TCU.
“There’s gonna be guys all over the place who are going to have opportunities,” Riley mentioned. “All sides of the ball, all position groups, maybe it’s some of the guys you saw a little bit during the season and in some instances you’ll see guys get some burn in this game that haven’t played at all or very little. Bowl games are great, but days like this are the most valuable part of it because we’re just pouring reps into all of these guys, it’s super competitive and the energy level is just different. All these guys feel it’s their time.”
Riley admitted he and his employees needed to make laborious choices primarily based on the incoming freshmen, a majority of whom are spring enrollees.
“It’s huge, it’s a high, high number that are going to be here and it’s important,” he mentioned. “We’ve had to make a bunch of roster decisions in the last couple of weeks. We have a large number of players who have already signed and some of the decisions we had to make were based on knowing what we have coming in, and when you sign as many as we did, you’re going to have tough decisions to make.”
