After a strong start to his Southern California tenure, coach Lincoln Riley has lost some momentum in Los Angeles.
The Trojans, who reached the top five in the Associated Press poll each of his first two seasons in 2022 and ’23, haven’t reached the top 10 in either of the past two seasons or won double-digit games since his first campaign.
USC is still looking for the program’s first College Football Playoff appearance entering the 13th season of its existence. With his fifth season on the horizon, Riley feels this could be the year where that changes.
“Right now I feel like our alignment is as strong as it’s ever been,” Riley said Tuesday at Big Ten media days in Chicago. “… I got a great vantage point in my years at Oklahoma of what great alignment, what steady leadership really looks like in a program. I can sit here today and say really for the first time at USC I feel all of those things are operating at a high level and are very, very steady right now. With that, the momentum has been created.”
Quarterback Jaiden Maiava is back after a breakout first full season as a starter in which he completed 65.8% of his passes for 3,711 yards, 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Fourteen other starters are also returning, including the top two running backs and the entire offensive line.
USC also signed the No. 1 high school recruiting class in the country this offseason.
As pressure mounts to make the playoffs, Riley is not shying away from the expectations.
“It’s what it’s supposed to feel like here,” Riley said. “I’ve said this multiple times. I mean, the only two places that I’ve been a head coach at were blue blood schools that have the highest of expectations. I’ve really not known anything different. …
“Every year I expect to win, I expect us to win. I expect us to compete for and win championships. That doesn’t change.”
–Rocco Becht a familiar face for Matt Campbell at Penn State
Matt Campbell built quite a reputation at Iowa State for doing more with less.
After logging 72 wins over 10 seasons leading the Cyclones, he left as the winningest coach in program history and replaced James Franklin at Penn State ahead of the 2026 season.
Now, he is adapting to a different coaching lifestyle after a move from one of the have-not programs to a have that is looking to rediscover its former glory after winning two national titles in the 1980s.
Campbell doesn’t see a difference in approach despite the difference in scenery.
“Winning football games hasn’t wavered,” Campbell said. “How you win, how you win on the field, and quite honestly, what’s not going to waver is my belief system on how you build a football program and how you create a transformational journey.”
While he is largely surrounded by new faces in State College, Pa., Campbell does have one very familiar face: quarterback Rocco Becht, who followed him from Iowa State to Penn State.
Becht appeared in 39 games the past three seasons under Campbell, throwing for 9,209 yards, 64 touchdowns and 26 interceptions.
“Rocco is one of the young men whose grit, whose character, whose toughness has led the way during his college football career,” Campbell said. “He’s earned the right to be great every step of the way and in a short amount of time has been an unbelievable competitor and connector in our locker room.”
–Luke Fickell faces the music
Luke Fickell hasn’t yet lived up to the hype as Wisconsin’s head coach.
He was seen as a slam-dunk hire when he took over the Badgers in 2023 after stunningly leading Cincinnati to the 2021 College Football Playoff.
However, he already has lost more games in three seasons at Wisconsin (21) than he did in six years at Cincinnati (18).
“The last two years for us have not been up to the standard,” Fickell said. “… It hasn’t been there. That’s not just in the wins and losses, that’s in a lot of other things as well — the way we play the game, the physicality, the toughness.”
Many didn’t expect Fickell to be back for the 2026 season, but Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh announced in November that Fickell would return for a fourth season and receive far greater financial support.
The Athletic reported that Wisconsin’s roster budget is now more than $25 million, approximately equivalent to the buyout Fickell would have been owed had he been fired after the 2025 season.
That change in commitment has the coach feeling as confident as ever in the direction things are trending.
“The players, the coaches, the people that are really close to this team, have seen and felt a difference throughout this entire program,” Fickell said. “I’m standing here today in a lot different place than I was in the last three years.”
–Field Level Media
