On life support, why Riley and USC are putting trust into an unknown group

Lincoln Riley went for it with his freshman class.Bringing back so many starters, including quarterback Jayden Maiava and the entire offensive line, made the USC coach comfortable with the idea of a huge number of high school prospects.The result was a 35-member freshman class that’s ranked as the best in the nation.“I’ve kind of described it to people as the perfect storm,” Riley said Monday during a reporters roundtable held on campus to discuss his roster.A pool of high school talent that Riley rated as one of the best he’s seen in Southern California combined with increased scholarship limits and so many veteran returners led to a class that the Trojans hope can finally vault them into the College Football Playoff.Topping the class are consensus five-star offensive tackle Keenyi Pepe, edge rusher Luke Wafle and defensive lineman Jaimeon Winfield.Counting both its nine transfers and incoming high school players, USC boasts a combined 25 four- and five-star newcomers.Adding to Riley’s excitement is the number of freshmen who are on campus.

The coach said 31 or 32 were already around, meaning the team would have a higher percentage of its roster present for offseason workouts and spring practice than any he had previously coached.“We’re going to have some young talent that is certainly going to contribute and I think our talent there is pretty unique,” Riley said, “but also, the experienced part of this roster is really experienced and really old too.I mean, you start looking at kind of what we return and then you look at historically, what do championship teams and really good teams typically return, we return a lot in those key areas.”USC returns 16 players who were at least part-time starters, including its most essential player.Maiava is back after leading the Big Ten with 3,711 passing yards last season while also throwing for 24 touchdowns.

Riley said he was seeking a similar leap from his quarterback to the one he made between his fir...