Lincoln Riley Gets Candid On USC Trojans Potential Defensive Playmakers

To make the College Football Playoff, the USC Trojans look to rely on these defensive stars.

Nov 7, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley watches game action against the Northwestern Wildcats during the second half at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The performance of the USC Trojans defense throughout the season will dictate the team’s chances of making the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history in their fifth year under Lincoln Riley.

Under new defensive coordinator Gary Patterson, several players on the Trojans' defense will contribute to this effort. Following Tuesday’s fall camp practice, Riley mentioned which players could be potential playmakers this season.

What Lincoln Riley Said

Jul 28, 2026; Chicago, IL, USA; USC Football head coach Lincoln Riley speaks during Media Days at Hilton Chicago. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Potential Defensive Playmakers

Oct 25, 2025; Ames, Iowa, USA; Iowa State Cyclones quarterback Rocco Becht (3) Iowa State Cyclones defensive back Jontez Williams (3) runs the football against the BYU Cougars at Jack Trice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

“I would definitely put Jontez high up on that list for sure. I think as he gets further and further away from the injury, his playmaking ability and experience- you can just feel this guy’s played a lot of ball. You can just tell he’s made a lot of plays already at this level. His ability to adapt to our scheme pretty quickly has definitely been apparent. Rock Hill has made a lot of nice plays on the ball.”

“Prophet continues to make a lot of plays. Madden Riordan kind of carried over from what he did in the spring; it definitely has, from an instinct standpoint, is up there for us. Been really impressed with Deven Bryant. I think he’s had an excellent fall camp at backer were pretty deep were pretty talented there. That’s honestly a group that out of the spring and in the fall, I was pretty interested to see where we were at, but I feel like we’ve made some real progress there. I think we have multiple across the front." 

“I feel like we have some edge guys there, both some of the young and new, that show some real, I think they’re going to cause problems for a lot of people and then likewise, with the rotation and the bodies that we have at defensive tackle, we’ve got, I would say a little bit of an unusual number of guys, I think, that can win one-on-ones and can get home, but also have some of the mass to be able to anchor down against some of these bigger personnel groupings and some of the different schemes that you see week to week in this league.” 

“So I feel like we’ve got some at all levels. I think it's going to be more about our groups continuing to come together to play great team defense to complement one another, and I think in any year, early in the season, you’re certainly looking for that, you’re emphasizing that, and certainly with a new coordinator and obviously some new things schematically. I think the sense of that is even heightened.”

Topic of Mental Health

“Yeah, it's changed as much as all these other topics in college football right now. Everybody talks about NIL, portal, or all of that, but that topic alone from day one as a player or as a coach, either one, to now has changed drastically and I think in a real positive way. I feel like the world is more open, aware, and sensitive to it, and I think with that these players are getting better resources across the board.” 

“I think it’s becoming before at times it was almost you know at times at least in our sport kind of this male alpha thing right where you just tough it out and as time has evolved its seemed to obviously everybody goes through things that you need support on there’s not a human on earth that is without that so trying to make it open and available for our players, trying to support them from a resource standpoint and then I think just making it comfortable for guys to be able to come talk to whether its somebody on staff or somebody outside here is very important. These guys go through a lot.” 

“What they do is extremely public, and even though they're getting paid and all that, now we still remind ourselves like that’s great they’re still kids; like they really are still kids. We all forget that sometimes. It’s good to see that the support systems and emphasis on mental health have gotten better and better through the years.” 

Mock Week

“We’ve used the last couple of days and certainly had some initial talks with our guys about at least where they stand at this moment, knowing full well that so much is going to evolve, right? These are starting points, just like I mean our reps at the start of fall camp two and a half weeks ago or whatever three weeks ago, that it's now been a lot of position groups have changed a lot, and it's going to continue to change throughout the year. But you do want to be able to give these guys a sense of where they’re at, where the starting point is, and then I think it's important to lay out what their path forward is, right?”

“If you’re where you want to be in terms of reps or role, how do you get better as a player and keep that, right? And if you’re not, like how do you continue to elevate while also being a star in your role here? Because that’s what we’re going to need. We’re going to need guys that own their role, and that’s number one what keeps the team first, and number two, as you go through the season, and you need different sets of guys, different weeks, guys are ready to step up and assume that. So it’ll be a big challenge for our team. I mean, it's right: the blessing and the curse sometimes the more depth you get, the more talented, more numbers, the more challenges that can provide, and so I’d rather have it this way, I promise.”

Crafting Game Plans for Jayden Maiava

Jul 28, 2026; Chicago, IL, USA; USC student-athlete Jayden Maiava speaks during Media Days at Hilton Chicago. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

“I mean, I would like to think so a lot. Because, you know, it's not, obviously, you know, he's a focal point of it, but, um, you know, our skill sets are very different. than what they've been. And, you know, we've got to be able to maximize that. 
And so, you know, for me, I've always started to look at it, you know, holistically and what we have, you know, where I think our advantages could be and how to capitalize on those."

"If they're being places that you feel like maybe someone would have an advantage, how do you maybe find a way to create that or work around it at one of the two? You know, I do think, you know, looking at the offense right now, you know, from just a holistic standpoint, I think we do have the opportunity to do a lot of things well. 
And maybe give us, you know, maybe more balance instead of, like, in terms of like run past necessarily, the more balance of like what we feel like we're able to do and how we feel like we're able to craft plans." 

“And the more you feel like you can do, obviously, that affects, you know, everybody pays attention to how you call a game. It's like way more about like what you pay a design and how you package, how you use different people; like that to me is way more important. 
And this has been a fun group to start to learn here. And I think, I think we all offensive staff have a better sense after these, after this training camp of where we feel like some of our advantages are, and I think we're starting to get an idea of how we feel like we're gonna attack people, maybe, like, what our identities could be. Obviously, you're getting into a tuning starter.”

QB2 Competition

Oct 22, 2022; Berkeley, California, USA; Washington Huskies quarterback Sam Huard (7) warms up before the game against the California Golden Bears at FTX Field at California Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports

“We've split Sam Huard and Jonas Williams' reps down the middle. We typically have made a decision by this point. On kind of how one, two, and three will lay out in that room. 
But we're just, we're not quite at that point yet. Both those guys have done a good job. I think they both elevated their play a lot. that's going to be a that's going to be a difficult decision. And one that, you know, we'll see how it plays out throughout the year. I mean, that could devolve like a lot of these other positions, but I really like the room. I mean, Sam's experience down our offense, having played college football for a while.” 

“I think it is apparent, and you feel that right now when he's in the hole. I mean, he feels like a veteran. 
He feels like somebody that is in complete control, and he's done a really nice job physically changing his body. He's moving around a lot better. We've joked; he's definitely got the best body of the hero and so on in the program right now. They've had some fun with that, as you can imagine. Jonas has done a really nice job.” 

“I mean, we gave him quite a few reps in the spring. 
I thought he handled them well, but he's pretty, he's pretty mature; his ability to communicate and operate for his age right now is definitely on the higher end of the true freshman that I can remember bringing in throughout the years. He's been really impressive. I feel we've got two guys there that we can win with. 
Um, and we'll have to obviously sort that out here at some point. We can rent three quarterbacks for forever, but we're gonna let this thing play out a little bit, if we can.”

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