How does Julian Lewis fit into Lincoln Riley’s QB succession plan at USC

The USC head coach has created a methodical plan with his quarterbacks and Lewis is next in line.

The USC Trojans won one of the bigger recruiting battles in the 2025 class last year when they ultimately landed a commitment from five-star quarterback Julian Lewis, who has received a total of 37 scholarship offers.

Lewis, who attends Carrollton High School in Georgia, has been one of the most sought-after quarterbacks in the 2025 class after re-classifying from the 2026 cycle, with teams such as Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, LSU, among others, extending offers.

Ultimately, he felt the best connection with head coach Lincoln Riley, who has been one of the brightest offensive minds in college football over the past decade, stemming from his time with the Oklahoma Sooners and carrying over to his current stint with the USC Trojans, where he most recently coached 2024 No. 1 pick, quarterback Caleb Williams.

As he’s gotten more acquainted as a head coach, Riley has chosen to involve a unique approach when it comes to recruiting quarterbacks, which has made USC a more appealing destination.

Rather than focus on landing a high-end signal-caller in every class to account for the numbers, Riley has instead looked to nab his quarterback of choice in every other class.

This strategy creates a gap between projected starting quarterbacks, as the program cycles through signal-callers every two years, providing a clearer path to playing time for high school recruits from the beginning.

His “succession” plan at quarterback has brought him some of the top quarterback recruits in the nation, with the latest being Lewis in the 2025 class.

Riley’s past recruiting

Looking in the past, USC brought in the 20th best recruiting class in 2024, according to 247Sports, landing 10 four-star prospects.

However, none of those players were a quarterback. In fact, none of USC’s 22 commits in the entire class were quarterbacks.

Why? Because Riley had focused on an elite quarterback option in the 2023 class, bringing in five-star Malachi Nelson, who was seen as the No. 1 player in the entire class, according to ESPN.

Now, Nelson did choose to transfer this offseason after his freshman season, creating a hole in Riley’s plan, which prompted the head coach to land UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava to compete with incumbent Miller Moss, who started the team’s bowl game, where he threw for 372 yards and six touchdowns.

But, Riley had ultimately taken a year gap between recruiting quarterbacks with the expectation that Nelson would start as a sophomore following the departure of Caleb Williams, who went first overall in the 2024 NFL Draft to the Chicago Bears.

The 2022 recruiting class for USC was more of an outlier, as Riley had just been hired coming from Oklahoma, which prompted the Trojans to have just eight high school recruits in the class.

But, they also brought in 20 transfers, with Williams being the lone quarterback coming from Oklahoma.

Williams was the prize recruit in 2021, coming in as a five-star recruit and the main attraction for Riley at quarterback with the Sooners.

The expectation was, once again, that Williams would start as a sophomore, with him backing up 2019 five-star Spencer Rattler for one year before the latter went to the NFL.

However, Rattler struggled, allowing for Williams to step in as a true freshman and he never relinquished the job.

Overall, though, there’s a pretty clear pattern when it comes to Lincoln Riley and his quarterback recruiting:

2019: Five-star Spencer Rattler (Oklahoma)

2020: None

2021: Five-star Caleb Williams (Oklahoma)

2022: None (Williams transferred from Oklahoma to USC)

2023: Five-star Malachi Nelson (USC)

2024: None

2025: Five-star Julian Lewis (USC)

Does Lewis fit in the plan?

Julian Lewis is Riley’s prized recruit in the 2025 class, coming in as a top quarterback in the nation and a player who should be on the field sooner than later.

Now, Riley’s “succession” plan has shifted a bit because of Malachi Nelson transferring, but fourth-year junior Miller Moss is expected to start this season, with UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava serving as a valid option as well.

Moss has two years of eligibility left after this season, so he could be USC’s starter for the next two years should he perform up to expectations in his first season as the main option.

But, Lewis has a clear path to the starting job before he even steps on campus.

There will be the opportunity to compete as a freshman, just as Riley gave Caleb Williams during his first offseason, but the expectation is that Lewis earns the starting job as a sophomore after learning during his first year.

That would provide him with at least two years of starting experience under Riley to cement his future as the next USC quarterback to potentially enter the NFL Draft.

However, even with the departure of two former five-star quarterbacks this offseason, Lincoln Riley’s succession plan remains firmly intact, and Julian Lewis is the next in line for the throne.