Lincoln Riley continues to raid Pac-12 schools for transfers, one of his best moves since joining USC

The #USC Trojans and Lincoln Riley are not only getting good #Pac12 transfers; they’re getting players who know a lot about other conference competitors.

The USC Trojans and Lincoln Riley made noise when they poached some transfer portal players from the Pac-12 last season: Brenden Rice and Mekhi Blackmon from Colorado, Austin Jones from Stanford, Eric Gentry from Arizona State, and Travis Dye from Oregon. USC grabbed lots of important players who were absolutely essential in the Trojans’ seven-win turnaround from 2021, when they won only four games. If USC hadn’t raided the Pac-12 for elite transfers, the Trojans would not have won 11 games this past season. They probably wouldn’t have won 10.

Riley and USC struck again, this time nabbing Arizona Wildcats DL transfer Kyon Barrs. The new Trojan posted a video to his Twitter page with a USC jersey with the #FightOn emoji, and Shotgun Spratling of 247Sports confirmed the move.

Barrs is from Murrieta, California, and returns close to home. His arrival is a boost to the USC defense, something Alex Grinch will be ecstatic about.

Barrs finished the year with 39 total tackles in 2022, and he had five sacks with 33 total tackles in 2021.

Barrs was excited about the decision, as shown in another tweet praising the Trojans.

The Trojans’ defensive issues came to light in the final stretch of the season. Those flaws formed the central reason why they ended up falling short in the Pac-12 title game. There’s no secret that finding help on that side of the ball should be at the forefront of their offseason plans.

Barrs had a visit with USC earlier this week and was scheduled to visit LSU and Miami, but the Trojans didn’t let him leave without a commitment.

There are certain things Lincoln Riley must learn how to do better at USC, but grabbing Pac-12 transfers with a fully-formed knowledge base about other Pac-12 football teams is not one of them.

This has been one of Riley’s best chess moves since taking the job at USC.

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