Here was my interview with Lincoln Riley about the perception that NIL played a role in the high-profile decommitments, transfer portal misses and otherwise this recruiting cycle:
"It's not accurate at all. Our NIL has taken massive leaps. I would venture to guess we're probably one of, if not the most improved NIL group in the country. It's just where we started from two years ago was the complete floor, where a lot of our competitors and people that we're currently competing against in recruiting were not at that same point two years ago. So, we're growing, we're progressing. Listen, like a lot of these things, like building a new facility, like getting the staff right, like building the roster, the NIL, it's all the same to me -- it all matters, it's all important, to do it right and to truly build it you can't microwave it. You can do some things to make it better quickly, but to get it to the level that we want it to be, it's a process. My job is to make sure that we're continually making progress, and we are in every single facet. Now, it's just got to continue to grow, it's got to continue to take hold, and NIL is no different.
"I'm proud of the progress that we've made there. The House of Victory group has done an unbelievable job. Again, they've started -- when House of Victory started years after a lot of these other groups that our competitors have, they had had already been up and running. Listen, you don't just make up that time in one season or in a short amount of time. Listen, it takes time. I want it worse than anybody, and the people in our building want it worse than anybody, but I also am rational enough to understand what we want to happen is happening. And it's happened more and more every single year we've been here, and every single year that we're here -- which is going to be many -- it's continue to happen at a higher and higher level. The momentum's there -- it's not going to stop -- it's got to be given time to take hold as well."
With that said, where does what you have compare to the NIL backing for the programs you go head to head with in recruiting?
"From NIL, we're getting to a very competitive place. Again, I'm really, really proud of our progress. Is there room to continue to improve and to get better? Of course there is. Absolutely. But to sit here and say we're not getting a player here or there because of NIL is not always the truth. The narrative nationally has flipped -- it's like now it's, well, every kid that goes to a school or doesn't go to a school it's just because they paid him or they didn't pay him, and that's not the truth. There's some people out there like in any job force on the planet, there's some people out there that money's incredibly important to, there's some people that it's moderately important to, there's some people that's it not that important to. We're dealing with the same thing, but no, to say that we're not getting guys because of NIL is not an accurate statement, and anybody that says that has absolutely no clue about what's going on behind the scenes at our place."
How do you feel about the recruiting cycle overall and where things stand?
"I think, No. 1, there is a lot of excitement around what we're doing defensively right now. I mean, some of the things that have happened there, especially in the positive early on, are real and they're going to continue to happen. Like I told someone earlier today, once they get a chance to see our guys coach together, they get a chance to see the development and they get a chance to build relationships with our defensive coaches longer than just a couple of months, watch and see what happens. That same thing happened when I became the head coach at OU, all right? 'You haven't done it yet.' We had several guys that decommitted or guys that didn't want to come there in the beginning. At some point, everybody's got to get out there and prove it, and we're no different than that and don't expect to be. The level of people we have in that room people are noticing -- just like every other part, watch and see what happens."
It was then brought up again in the group interview we did before Riley went on stage ...
On the state of the program entering Year 3:
"The notion on the outside is rarely the same notion on the inside. I mean, that's just, the notion on the outside always is going to fluctuate so drastically with what happened in your previously game, what happened this and that, and a lot of times that's just not reality. It's not. There's just a climb that's happening right now. I think in a lot of way we've positioned ourselves certainly better than what we were in Year 1 and better than what we were in Year 2, and now we've got to go take advantage of it.
"I'm not the oldest coach, I haven't seen it all, but I've been through this enough with these blue-bloods to know that the outside is always going to be sensationalized one way or another, but if you have a plan and you stick to it and you stay steady and you know that you're making progress in the key areas that you have to do it, that eventually it's going to be what we want it to be and that's what we're doing right now."
On his plan to get USC to the top of the Big Ten in terms of recruiting, on the level Oregon and Ohio State are currently at:
"We are at the top of the Big Ten Conference. We're at the top of any conference. I don't ever look at ourselves below anybody and I never will. Listen, two years ago, look where Ohio State and Oregon were two years ago -- look what they took over, look what we took over. It takes time. I'm not a magician. I can't wave a magic wand and everything just be perfect right away. Find one area that we haven't made progress. So this thing's got momentum, it's coming, nothing's going to stop it. That's fine, they started at a different point -- we'll see where it ends up."
On coming up short on needs in the post-spring transfer portal:
"The fall one has been a little bit more predictable, after guys' seasons. More people are going to move, you have a little bit more of a confidence of maybe, you don't know specifically but you have a decent feel of generally what's going to be in there. Spring, that's a new deal, so I think honestly the talent level in there in the spring was maybe even a little bit less than it was the year before. I didn't feel as much high-quality movement. And I think at that point, you're really conscious of the team's already started to be formed and you've got to be really conscious of bringing somebody in that late that you're worried about how they're going to fit in the locker room and the culture and what you're trying to build. We ran into a couple of players that we felt had the talent to be able to help us but they gave us some reservations on the other part of it, so no, excited about the guys that we added. We're not completely done yet, but we're excited about the guys that we added."
"It's not accurate at all. Our NIL has taken massive leaps. I would venture to guess we're probably one of, if not the most improved NIL group in the country. It's just where we started from two years ago was the complete floor, where a lot of our competitors and people that we're currently competing against in recruiting were not at that same point two years ago. So, we're growing, we're progressing. Listen, like a lot of these things, like building a new facility, like getting the staff right, like building the roster, the NIL, it's all the same to me -- it all matters, it's all important, to do it right and to truly build it you can't microwave it. You can do some things to make it better quickly, but to get it to the level that we want it to be, it's a process. My job is to make sure that we're continually making progress, and we are in every single facet. Now, it's just got to continue to grow, it's got to continue to take hold, and NIL is no different.
"I'm proud of the progress that we've made there. The House of Victory group has done an unbelievable job. Again, they've started -- when House of Victory started years after a lot of these other groups that our competitors have, they had had already been up and running. Listen, you don't just make up that time in one season or in a short amount of time. Listen, it takes time. I want it worse than anybody, and the people in our building want it worse than anybody, but I also am rational enough to understand what we want to happen is happening. And it's happened more and more every single year we've been here, and every single year that we're here -- which is going to be many -- it's continue to happen at a higher and higher level. The momentum's there -- it's not going to stop -- it's got to be given time to take hold as well."
With that said, where does what you have compare to the NIL backing for the programs you go head to head with in recruiting?
"From NIL, we're getting to a very competitive place. Again, I'm really, really proud of our progress. Is there room to continue to improve and to get better? Of course there is. Absolutely. But to sit here and say we're not getting a player here or there because of NIL is not always the truth. The narrative nationally has flipped -- it's like now it's, well, every kid that goes to a school or doesn't go to a school it's just because they paid him or they didn't pay him, and that's not the truth. There's some people out there like in any job force on the planet, there's some people out there that money's incredibly important to, there's some people that it's moderately important to, there's some people that's it not that important to. We're dealing with the same thing, but no, to say that we're not getting guys because of NIL is not an accurate statement, and anybody that says that has absolutely no clue about what's going on behind the scenes at our place."
How do you feel about the recruiting cycle overall and where things stand?
"I think, No. 1, there is a lot of excitement around what we're doing defensively right now. I mean, some of the things that have happened there, especially in the positive early on, are real and they're going to continue to happen. Like I told someone earlier today, once they get a chance to see our guys coach together, they get a chance to see the development and they get a chance to build relationships with our defensive coaches longer than just a couple of months, watch and see what happens. That same thing happened when I became the head coach at OU, all right? 'You haven't done it yet.' We had several guys that decommitted or guys that didn't want to come there in the beginning. At some point, everybody's got to get out there and prove it, and we're no different than that and don't expect to be. The level of people we have in that room people are noticing -- just like every other part, watch and see what happens."
It was then brought up again in the group interview we did before Riley went on stage ...
On the state of the program entering Year 3:
"The notion on the outside is rarely the same notion on the inside. I mean, that's just, the notion on the outside always is going to fluctuate so drastically with what happened in your previously game, what happened this and that, and a lot of times that's just not reality. It's not. There's just a climb that's happening right now. I think in a lot of way we've positioned ourselves certainly better than what we were in Year 1 and better than what we were in Year 2, and now we've got to go take advantage of it.
"I'm not the oldest coach, I haven't seen it all, but I've been through this enough with these blue-bloods to know that the outside is always going to be sensationalized one way or another, but if you have a plan and you stick to it and you stay steady and you know that you're making progress in the key areas that you have to do it, that eventually it's going to be what we want it to be and that's what we're doing right now."
On his plan to get USC to the top of the Big Ten in terms of recruiting, on the level Oregon and Ohio State are currently at:
"We are at the top of the Big Ten Conference. We're at the top of any conference. I don't ever look at ourselves below anybody and I never will. Listen, two years ago, look where Ohio State and Oregon were two years ago -- look what they took over, look what we took over. It takes time. I'm not a magician. I can't wave a magic wand and everything just be perfect right away. Find one area that we haven't made progress. So this thing's got momentum, it's coming, nothing's going to stop it. That's fine, they started at a different point -- we'll see where it ends up."
On coming up short on needs in the post-spring transfer portal:
"The fall one has been a little bit more predictable, after guys' seasons. More people are going to move, you have a little bit more of a confidence of maybe, you don't know specifically but you have a decent feel of generally what's going to be in there. Spring, that's a new deal, so I think honestly the talent level in there in the spring was maybe even a little bit less than it was the year before. I didn't feel as much high-quality movement. And I think at that point, you're really conscious of the team's already started to be formed and you've got to be really conscious of bringing somebody in that late that you're worried about how they're going to fit in the locker room and the culture and what you're trying to build. We ran into a couple of players that we felt had the talent to be able to help us but they gave us some reservations on the other part of it, so no, excited about the guys that we added. We're not completely done yet, but we're excited about the guys that we added."
