Lincoln Riley addresses state of college football with transfers, bowl opt-outs

The conversation surrounding the NCAA Transfer Portal and bowl game opt outs has been prevalent across college football over recent weeks. Many have slammed players for taking advantage of the system, while others have defended them. New USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley joined ESPN College GameDay on Saturday, where he gave his take on the current state of the sport with transfers and opt outs.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Riley said on GameDay. “From the individual perspectives, you see that. As a college coach, it’s our job to offer perspective on these guys because these are opportunist you don’t get back. You understand why those guys have these thoughts in their minds, but you try to give them perspective. Like all of us we aren’t playing another snap, maybe David [Pollack]. So when you get down the line, you tell players, ‘are you going to be happy that you did that?’ A lot of guys will miss that.”

The conversation was discussed a lot on GameDay on Saturday ahead of the New Year’s Six bowl slate. GameDay analysts Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard controversially blasted players for not loving the game anymore, which led to some strong rebuttals from some players across the nation.

For Riley, he understands why players opt out, adding that it is his job as a head coach to offer fair guidance to his players.

Riley is looking to fix USC’s culture

USC was not bowl eligible this season. The Trojans fired former head coach Clay Helton in the middle of the season, and now Riley is the next man up after leaving Oklahoma. While a lot of the nation is focused on bowl opt outs and stuff of that nature right now, Riley is putting together a plan on how to fix the culture at USC.

“I think the first thing is bringing a staff of people that understand what that looks like,” said Riley. “We don’t have to teach them what the culture looks like and then in turn teach the players. We’ve been able to bring a tremendous staff, guys who know what a championship program looks like, how it operates. And then you bring it to these guys. There’s a lot of buy-in right now. I think USC’s at a place where maybe the program’s been humbled in a way, and I think everybody realizes we’ve all got to get on board, we’ve got to do it together.

“Programs that are championship programs, that are right there in the mix year in and year out, it starts right there with culture and that’s certainly what’s going to happen for us at USC.”