USC Football: Several Transfer Portal Quarterbacks Already Off Board For Trojans

Where will Lincoln Riley turn next?

With the transfer portal in full swing, your USC Trojans still haven't nabbed a possible Caleb Williams replacement at quarterback. 

To be fair to Lincoln Riley, the first signing date for high school recruits will be here shortly. As such, he and his staff have been traveling all over the country with the hopes of both keeping recruits in the fold and also flipping some committed elsewhere. 

As this process has continued, a plethora of quarterbacks from the portal have come off the board in recent weeks. 

#USC has the second-best odds to land #WashingtonState QB transfer Cameron Ward at 2/1 (behind Ohio State at 3/2) and second-best odds to land #KansasState QB transfer Will Howard at 3/1 (behind Texas A&M at 3/2), according to @betonline_ag.

— Shotgun Spratling (@ShotgunSpr) December 9, 2023

Riley Leonard decided to transfer from Duke to Notre Dame. Dillon Gabriel is making the move away from Oklahoma to attend Oregon. SoCal native Aidan Chiles is following Jonathan Smith from Oregon State to Michigan State. 

Dante Moore appears to be centering his focus on Oregon and other schools closer to his native Michigan. Kyle McCord could be headed to Syracuse, Tyler Van Dyke is headed to Wisconsin, and Will Rogers appears destined to become a Washington Husky. 

With all of the movement, there's only a handful of players with potential links to USC.

NEWS: Georgia, South Carolina, USC, Syracuse, Baylor, Oregon State, and Duke have indicated interest in Texas QB Maalik Murphy, @PeteThamel reports👀https://t.co/gQxLiIhyhm pic.twitter.com/U9e25KTsod

— On3 (@On3sports) December 14, 2023

The three most likely options could include Wazzu's Cam Ward, K-State's Will Howard, and Texas transfer Maalik Murphy. 

Ward is said to be considering Miami, Florida State, and Ohio State in addition to the Trojans. Howard has long been pegged to be the eventual successor to Caleb Williams. Riley reportedly went and visited Howard earlier in the process. 

Murphy is a player with a ton of natural ability. Having backed up Quinn Ewers this year, he flashed some real ability. Unlike Howard or Ward, Murphy is the only one hailing originally from Southern California. 

It will be fascinating to see how all of this shakes out. To this point, the Trojans are slated to return Miller Moss and Malachi Nelson as scholarship quarterbacks next season. 

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