Can USC and Lincoln Riley put it all together and win in 2022?

LIKE MANY STORIED FOOTBALL programs, USC attempts to overwhelm you with its history once you step on campus. Plaques filled with names of previous great players line the walkway toward the practice field named after former head coach Howard Jones alongside donor Brian Kennedy. Before every practice, players walk up an ascendant tunnel and through an arch with Greek lettering, touching a sword erected as a “symbol of conquest and victory,” and through the gate named after Marv Goux — a former captain and assistant coach from the late 1950s to the 1980s.

Over the last decade, it has felt like the program has had no choice but to hang on to the glory days, teams and players of the past. Through the struggles and even some of the successes (see: the 2017 Rose Bowl), USC has clung to that history. So much so, in some cases, that it’s led to coaching decisions that have backfired: Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, Clay Helton, Pat Haden, Lynn Swann. And so on.

Lincoln Riley now jogs through that same path they all once did on his way to practice. And even though his message since he arrived in Los Angeles has referenced that history and legacy plenty, it doesn’t take much time to see that he is a deviation from the norm.

“I feel like the biggest difference is Coach,” senior offensive lineman Andrew Vorhees, who has been at USC since 2017, said. “The paradigm shift that he’s brought to our culture in our program, that has really stood out to me.”

If the changes to the culture have been clear from the start, the changes on the field, especially under Riley’s offense, have been even more stark.

“It’s kind of like, you go to a different country and you have to drive on the left side of the road,” Vorhees said.

As USC’s most anticipated season in some time approaches, Riley’s arrival now poses a new outlook for a USC team that needed not just a refresh, but a complete restart. The ensuing tidal wave of change that has followed since the…