USC Football: Why USC Has a Good Chance at Landing This Elite 2025 Linebacker Recruit
USC is one step closer to landing the second commit of their 2025 recruiting class. Elite quarterback recruit Julian Lewis (a Georgia product who reclassified from the 2026 class) remains the lone 2025 commit, but today Trojan fans received some intriguing news about another possible addition to USC's 2025 class.
McKinney (McKinney, TX) class of 2025 linebacker Riley Pettijohn is now down to six schools that he is focusing his recruitment on, from a pool of over 25 offers.
USC is joined by Georgia, Texas, Texas A&M, Florida State, and Ohio State on the 6-foot-2, 215-pound linebacker's list. Hayes Fawcett of On3 broke the news on X/Twitter just moments ago.
"USC is up there because I like what they are building right now and Coach Entz and Coach Lynn have great coaching backgrounds." is what Pettijohn told On3.
Lincoln Riley was heralded as a genius by many across college football when he hired Matt Entz out of the head coaching role at North Dakota State and D'Anton Lynn as his defensive coordinator role at UCLA.
That quote from Pettijohn serves, at least at some level, as validation for that praise. Riley wanted to bring in a staff that not only develops talent but can also recruit well. His previous defensive coordinator, Alex Grinch, was not known as a good recruiter. But now with both Entz and Lynn exposing a stronger Trojan recruiting pitch to a wider audience, it appears as if the message is landing.
According to On3, Pettijohn is one of the top players in the State of Texas, and the third-best linebacker in the 2025 class.
