Lincoln Riley on recruiting quarterbacks: 'If he’s scared to compete, this ain’t the room for him'

When it comes to developing quarterbacks, Riley's resume speaks for itself

When it comes to developing quarterbacks, USC head coach Lincoln Riley's resume speaks for itself. He's the only head coach in college football history to produce three Heisman Trophy winners at the position.

Following USC's spring practice on Saturday, Riley was asked about how he recruits quarterbacks. Ideally, does he like to bring in a top prospect each year?

“I’m definitely not against it," Riley said. "Throughout those years, it's funny, there’s been several years where there hasn’t been a guy that I just like totally said ‘He’s the guy.’ Some of the perceptions are ‘Oh, well they only try to recruit a really good one every other year.’ Have we occasionally run into guys that don’t want to come because a high-profile guy came in the year before? Absolutely we have. I love knowing that on the front end because that’s telling me the guy’s scared to compete. If he’s scared to compete, this ain’t the room for him. So that’s been a great revealing factor for me."

The question posed to Riley stems from USC's activity recruiting the quarterback position in the 2024 cycle. Despite five-star QB Malachi Nelson signing with USC back in December and enrolling this semester, Riley has aggressively pursued Arizona quarterback Dylan Raiola, the unanimous top recruit in 2024. Riley is also recruiting 2024 Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) QB Elijah Brown. 

"I love having good players in a room, one, because obviously its good to have good players in a room, two, it’s because if somebody comes in there, that means they’re not scared to compete," Riley said. "You kind of know what they’re made of before you even get into some of the situations with them. So, some of those years where we didn’t take a guy, that was the case. Even if we did offer a couple guys, maybe they just decided it wasn’t for them. And that’s okay, no problem."

"But taking really good quarterbacks in back-to-back classes, I’d love to do it. I’m gonna try to take one every year whether it's a transfer or whether it's a high school guy or JUCO guy or whatever it is. I'm going to always try to take one just because there’s so much movement in those rooms year to year. I think it’s less about us strategizing to take one every year and it’s more about we want to get a guy that’s gonna be a good enough player. Our standards are obviously pretty darn high in that room and he’s also gotta have the makeup knowing he can come in and believe in himself and wants to come compete and do it at, in my opinion, one of the best places to play quarterback in the country. When it works out, it works out."