USC set its sights on signing an elite recruiting class early on in the 2026 cycle and it paid off. The Trojans officially claimed the No. 1 class in the Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Rankings earlier this month.
It’s the first time since the 2006 cycle that USC has claimed a top-ranked recruiting haul. For head coach Lincoln Riley, signing a haul this ballyhooed was just the next step in taking the program back to the top of the college football mountain.
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“I think it’s another example of what’s been happening here over the last three-plus years. I think it’s an example of what we’re building, it’s an example of these people all believing in this vision, believing in the direction of USC football,” Riley told On3’s J.D. PicKell on ‘The Hard Count.’
The likes of Notre Dame, Ohio State and Oregon all made big runs to try and dethrone the Trojans from the No. 1 spot late in the cycle, but they held strong, thanks to a 35-man class that features 22 blue-chip signees in total.
Golden State natives make up a bulk of the class. Of the 35 signees, 20 played their final year of high school football in California. That includes five-star tight end Mark Bowman and three other top-100 prospects.
Riley and his staff prioritized local targets, but that didn’t stop them from plucking top talent all over the country, too. Ten other states are represented in the class, with Texas, Ohio, Illinois and Colorado all having multiple representatives.
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“To see that many guys, whether it be — obviously so much of the class was centered here in Southern California, we were obviously able to go get some guys outside of our state lines at a few of the key positions we think are gonna be great Trojans as well,” Riley said.
Newcomers ‘want to do it for USC’
What really has Riley excited about the class is the sheer number of signees that are already on campus and ready to roll for the spring. USC locked down just about all of its class during the December signing period.
“It adds a lot of validity to what you’re doing, and then I think the added benefit for us is such a high percentage of these guys — over 30 of them — are here for spring ball,” he said. “I think the ability to not just recruit and sign these guys, but to get them here, to develop them and to get these guys ready to contribute to this football program right now, was really important to us and I think it’s very key going forward.”
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The class is, of course, loaded. Five-Star Plus+ EDGE Luke Wafle out of New Jersey finished as the No. 1 recruit in the Rivals300 and figures to make an early impact in SoCal. Rivals five-star defensive lineman Jamieon Winfield and four-star wide receiver Boobie Feaster were two of the top prospects in Texas.
USC’s class features 12 signees who finished as a top-10 recruit at their respective position. Riley is excited about seeing this group mingle with the returning talent that he feels has the Trojans on the cusp of something special.
“It’s a heck of a group, there’s a lot of talent,” he said. “They want to do it for USC, they want to win championships here, they want to do it together. That was really the main thing that drove this class as it started coming together. When you’ve got a group of guys like that, then you’re putting them into a team that already has a lot of people that think that way and has a good culture and understanding about it … you like how that sounds, it makes a lot of sense and now we’ve got to bring those two groups together.”
