USC Football: Intriguing Geographic Breakdown Of Lincoln Riley's Recruiting Trajectory

USC is clearly casting a wide net with its recruiting approach...

Lincoln Riley has been a motivated man this offseason. 

The USC Trojans head coach already has spring practice scheduled. He's completely revamped his defensive coaching staff -- which included poaching D'Anton Lynn from rival UCLA. 

A final step in building toward the upcoming year is hitting the recruiting trails with energy, effort, and organization. 

USC's recruiting approach will have to evolve as it heads into the Big Ten. With essentially half of the Trojans' games being played in different timezones, it'll enable a national brand to be further cemented in other areas of the country. 

As detailed below by reporter Luca Evans, we're already seeing Riley take that premise to heart. 

Had some fun making this map of where Lincoln Riley's been recruiting over the last couple weeks, and his geographic activity reveals a lot about how #USC's recruiting philosophy is evolving entering the Big Ten.

Story, with some important data: https://t.co/v2g4GthJ1i

— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans) January 31, 2024

As the map shows, Riley has spent a ton of time recruiting the deep South, as well as the Northeast/Rust Belt portion of the country. 

USC has had success landing guys from both Georgia and Florida over the years. Those states are two of the most talent-rich places in the country. The Trojans will always pursue players from this region. 

However, with the Midwest now being a focal point of the upcoming schedule, the Trojans should be able to recruit this area much more effectively -- if for nothing else than the fact parents of these recruits can now more readily see their kids play without having to take expensive cross-country flights to Los Angeles. 

In the 2024 class (which ranked No. 20 according to 247Sports), USC signed guys from Florida, Georgia, Connecticut, Texas, Michigan, Minnesota, and Colorado. 

While the Trojans have landed guys from these states before, the Big Ten affiliation should make it easier to sign more of these out-of-state players. 

The class of 2024 is a rather strong sample size indicating as such.