USC Football: Lincoln Riley Praises Deion Sanders Ahead of Highly Anticipated Matchup
As USC makes what could be its final trip to Boulder this Saturday, two head coaches will meet each other for the first time.
USC's Lincoln Riley and Colorado's Deion Sanders have much in common.
Yes, one is an NFL Hall of Famer and the other a longtime college coach, but they both took advantage of an evolving NCAA rulebook to build programs that have already outperformed expectations.
Riley employed an unprecedented use of the transfer portal when he and 26 new transfers joined USC before the 2022 season. The allure of combining the updated Name, Image, and Likeness rules with the vast earning opportunities presented by playing for a team in the second-largest media market in the country proved effective in attracting some of the top talent in college football.
Sanders has followed Riley's template in Colorado. In his first year at Boulder, Sanders completely reconstructed a roster that finished with just one win last season. Only 20 of the 83 scholarship players on the 2022 Buffaloes remain, as Sanders has brought in 46 scholarship transfers, including eight from Jackson State, where his coaching career began.
"I think he's done a great job," Riley said. "I mean, look at the results. At the end of the day, our job as coaches is to do what's necessary to help make these programs that give us an opportunity the best we possibly can. ... There's a lot more similarities in the transformation here and what Coach has done at Colorado than there's not."
The two innovative coaches have yet to meet, but their paths are guaranteed to cross Saturday.
"He seems very genuine in his approach," Riley said on Sanders. "When you're fake and you're someone you're not, people see right through that. Regardless of what your characteristics are, of your personality, if you're yourself, you can be a great leader."
The highly-anticipated matchup between Colorado and USC will kick off at 9 a.m. PDT.
Yup, you read that correctly—9 a.m.
