As if they didn’t have enough to worry about on the eve of their season opener, USC football coach Lincoln Riley and his college counterparts could soon be confronted by an awkward question:
Do they want their old guys back?
A court ruling has cleared the way for a group of former college players who signed with NFL teams this summer to gain additional collegiate eligibility.
Even though they have been practicing with professional teams. Even though they had seemingly moved on with their lives.
None of that might matter given those players have reportedly expressed interest in being released from their NFL contracts and joining a college roster.
So, where does Riley stand on the possibility of bringing back a player who was thought to have played his final game as a Trojan?
“Ultimately, at the end of the day, you’ve got to feel like bringing in somebody is in the best interest of the team, right?” Riley said Thursday. “Addition doesn’t always mean necessarily making you better, right? And we feel very strongly about the group that we’ve put together, we feel very strongly about the kind of culture and attitude and vibe of this team right now, and so first and foremost, we’re going to protect that, and if at some point someone comes up that we feel like can add to the roster and add to the intangible part of this, then we would certainly look at it.”
While they were not among the group of players granted a temporary restraining order as part of the lawsuit against the NCAA, there are a couple of former USC players whose returns could make sense — at least in theory — should they decide to go down a similar path.
Detroit Lions rookie edge rusher Anthony Lucas and Pittsburgh Steelers rookie tight end Lake McRee both signed with their respective teams as undrafted free agents, meaning they face long odds to make the roster, much less contribute significantly in their first NFL seasons.
But there’s no certainty they even want to return, and the Trojans are at a strange juncture to be adding players — even ones they know and love. They are about to enter game-week mode ahead of their season opener against San Jose State on Aug. 29 at the Coliseum after having collectively endured the strain of training camp.
How would someone who won a starting job feel about being displaced by another player who wasn’t part of that process? How might the addition of players at this point change the locker room bonding that’s been going on since spring practice?
Those are tough questions without easy answers. Riley said general manager Chad Bowden, coaches and other staffers were continuing to monitor the seemingly daily rule changes and how they might impact the team.
“I think we’ve had to learn — I think we all have — there’s things within the rules of the game that if there’s a place to have an advantage for USC, we would always look at it — I mean, always,” Riley said. “Whether we agree with it or not, that is definitely something that I wish wasn’t happening right now in college football — and not for any individual’s sake, just for the overall good of the game.
“For us, it’s something we’re looking at, it’s something we have looked at as some of these different judges’ decisions have transpired across the country. There’s never going to be a stone that’s not going to be uncovered, that’s not going to be looked at, discussed.”
