LOS ANGELES -- "There's pressure to win championships here every year."
The words USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley spoke to close out Monday afternoon's roundtable discussion with the media spoke volumes about the concrete goals set for 2026.
That statement couldn't be truer for this blue-blood program.
After a rather disappointing 2025 season, Riley and company threw the brake pad out on the highway and tackled the offseason with the intent of not only securing the best recruiting class of 2026 but also retaining a great percentage of their starting lineup.
In a short span of time, they were successful in both aspects.
With the massive upclimb of positives that the Trojans' athletic department took as a whole to their football program within the last couple of weeks, the ever-increasing advertisement of hype surrounding next season, all arrows point forward for a historic 2026 for Southern California.
It's even more evident by the fact that Riley's confidence with the incoming class can contribute from the opening kickoff in September.
USC managed to ink 35 signees during the early signing period, an unusually high number of young talent coming forth after a season that felt mere short of a playoff spot, but Riley explained that the abundance of signees was "the perfect storm."
Riley credited that, with the way the roster had been established up to that point and a willingness to move away from relying on the transfer portal, it was a great year to sign a talent-stacked recruiting class; plus it helped the cause even more that more than half of the 2026 class was from Southern California.
Depth was also a concern down the stretch for USC last season, but the Trojans wanted to keep the emphasis on culture, especially with new faces in the building.
General manager Chad Bowden rallied at the roundtable that a huge part of recruiting specific players was not based on their talent, but their readiness to act as leaders from the jump.
"It was very targeted in getting the right kids; kids that were leaders at past programs, kids that made the most sense for our football team in what we were trying to do schematically," Bowden said.
Both Bowden and Riley put heavy emphasis on what the incoming class and current roster players could create.
This was spearheading the conversation about the culture USC wants to establish in this new day and age of college football.
Bowden, more specifically, believes that culture within the team can be the building blocks for the already expected playoff expectations USC is supposed to qualify for.
"We feel very confident in what we have," Bowden said. "People should be excited, and I hope everybody understands how excited we are."