On our USC call-in show at The Voice of College Football, Trojan fans are understandably venting their frustrations. It was a bad week for the program. There’s no other way to say it. The Trojans lost two prime defensive commitments. This raised questions about the NIL operation. Fans are right to focus on USC’s NIL inadequacies as a problem which must be addressed. However, one fan blamed Lincoln Riley for this NIL situation. The blame should go elsewhere, as we wrote:
“Lincoln Riley hired (Eric) Henderson to sell USC’s new emphasis on NFL-quality player development. That hire — and the sales pitch attached to it — successfully gained a commitment. That was a tangible achievement. The fact that the commitment didn’t hold up — with Terry and Gibson changing their minds — points to factors other than the coaching staff. These decommitments weren’t the product of Eric Henderson suddenly becoming less of an authority on defensive line coaching and player development. These decommitments didn’t occur because D’Anton Lynn somehow became a less impressive defensive coordinator. No, this was almost surely about player compensation and what was put on the table by USC, compared to other schools these players visited.”
What matters is not who is to blame, but how this NIL mess gets fixed.
You can watch and listen to USC fans vent on The Voice of College Football:
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