USC football: Lincoln Riley ranked 7th best coach in college football

In his list of top 35 college football coaches ahead of the 2023 season, 247Sports.com's Brad Crawford listed Riley as the seventh best coach in the country

A day after answering questions during USC football's first spring practice press conference, Lincoln Riley was named a top-ten coach in college football by 247Sports.com's Brad Crawford. 

In his list of top 35 college football coaches ahead of the 2023 season, Crawford listed Riley as the seventh-best coach in the country. 

"Riley's first season at USC passed the Pac-12 eye test with flying colors," Crawford wrote. "[USC had] one of the nation's most talented, transfer-heavy rosters. It was Alex Grinch's defense that cost the Trojans a shot at a College Football Playoff berth in the Pac-12 championship game, not the other side of the football. Riley's offense clicked on all cylinders this season and produced another Heisman winner at the quarterback position. Riley's scheme works and he has brought USC back to national prominence in short order. He is 66-13 as a head coach across two blue-blood programs."

The six coaches ahead of Riley in order are Ohio State's Ryan Day, LSU's Brian Kelly, Clemson's Dabo Swinney, Michigan's Jim Harbaugh, Alabama's Nick Saban and Georgia's Kirby Smart.

MAKING THE LEAP

In his second year in charge at USC, Riley has higher expectations for his program.

"We've pushed the guys to understand what was acceptable 12 months ago is not necessarily acceptable now," he said on Tuesday. "If we're going to raise the standard of this program, it has to happen in everything that we do. We're way more advanced certainly in every sense of the word than we were at this point last year, but the standards are also higher too."