The transfer portal gives and takes away, leaving some teams more satisfied than others with the state of their roster than others. According to legendary head coach Urban Meyer, though, the USC Trojans are losing momentum.
What’s happened with the Trojans to draw the ire of a multi-time national champion? Is there anything Lincoln Riley can do to regain lost momentum?
Urban Meyer Slams USC: ‘It Doesn’t End Well’
A former national championship winner with the Florida Gators and Ohio State Buckeyes, Meyer had kind words about Riley. He said the current USC head coach has a grand offensive scheme and acknowledged that Riley beat him early in Riley’s Oklahoma Sooners tenure.
However, the legendary HC issued a foreboding warning during an appearance with Colin Cowherd on The Herd.
“I’m saying all the right things because I believe it will work. Here’s the problem,” Meyer told Cowherd. “Once you lose momentum, it’s hard to get back. And USC lost momentum.”
This comes after the Trojans had a rough week of transfer portal departures. The Trojans lost brothers Zion Branch and Zachariah Branch to the transfer portal, and while they’ve had a few additions, USC is worse now than it was two weeks ago.
Meyer focused on the power of recruiting momentum and how difficult it is to change the tide when a team starts to lose it.
“They had [momentum] when they hired him, and a lot of energy,” Meyer said. “They officially have lost momentum in Southern California. What does that mean? Normally, it doesn’t end well. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt because it’s not his first rodeo. He did a really good job at Oklahoma.”
According to Meyer, momentum on the recruiting trail is huge.
“The minute you lose momentum, you got to really turn up the heat now to get that momentum back, and that’s got to be, you’ve got to get some prized recruit. You’ve got to win some games, because if you continue to lose momentum, this will end poorly.”
The Trojans finished their 2025 high school recruiting class well, landing Jakeem Stewart, one of multiple five-star recruits to pledge to USC in the final weeks.
However, the Trojans failed to carry that momentum into the transfer portal, losing several key contributors. It’s still early, and there’s time to replace some missing pieces. But recruiting can snowball. A few misses can turn into several misses. Of course, a few hits can turn into several as well.
The clock is ticking on Riley and the 6-6 Trojans. It’s hard to come back when the energy around the program drops. Only time will tell if Riley can regain the momentum.
According to Meyer, that’s a difficult thing to do.
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