There is a clear frontrunner in the 2026 college football recruiting cycle, and it resides in Los Angeles. USC is off to a monstrous start despite the underwhelming nature of the Trojans’ last two seasons, and the recruiting surge has been a “special” experience, according to Lincoln Riley. With a pair of five-star recruits and 14 total blue-chip prospects in tow, the Trojans are back on the road to College Football Playoff contention.
While unable, per NCAA rules, to comment on specific commits, Riley pulled back the curtain on what has worked for USC in this year’s recruiting cycle that did not work in years past. Positive momentum for a program that Riley himself said is poised to come back with a vengeance clearly resonated with a bevy of the top prospects in the class.
“It’s not a pitch,” Riley said on Big Ten Network. “They see what’s happening. They see the staff we’ve put together. They see the facility we’re building across the street right now; it’s going to be one of the best in college football. They see a chance to get a degree that will change their life no matter what happens on the football field. I think the people that really watched our team play last year — the edge, the toughness that we played with, the improvements that were made. I just think with that, the overall trajectory. I think they see the opportunity to do it at a place that is really unlike any other.”
A renewed identity on the recruiting trail does not hurt, either. USC made its backyard a priority and secured commitments from a host of the top talent in Southern California. Shifting the focus from non-traditional recruiting pipelines back towards the West Coast could pay dividends over the long term and prevent the flurry of decommitments that plagued last year’s haul
“It’s been fun to see the class come together,” said Riley. “A lot of guys that, obviously there’s an individual part to these decisions, but there’s also, you feel the class, they really want to do it together and they want to do it here. It’s been very special to see it come together.”
Xavier Griffin headlines the haul as the No. 8 overall prospect and top-ranked linebacker in the 2026 recruiting class. Five-star tackle Keenyi Pepe, another top-10 overall prospect, joined the batch of soon-to-be Trojans this week with his highly anticipated commitment. Six other commits rank inside the top 100 nationally.
RELATED (VIP): How five-star OT Keenyi Pepe’s commitment impacts USC
“I think USC is going to finish with a top-10 class,” 247Sports national recruiting analyst Cooper Petagna said earlier this spring. “I don’t think the floor is going to bottom out. I think USC, Lincoln Riley, Jen Cohen, their AD, they’ve done a good job to course-correct and fix a problem that they’ve had.”
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