One of the biggest college football storylines still to play out this season is whether USC makes a change at head coach, and if it does, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer is reportedly the name sitting at the top of the list.
Lincoln Riley is now six seasons into his USC run, and the results still haven’t produced the kind of breakthrough the Trojans were hired to chase. He has yet to land the marquee win that would show USC is truly back in the hunt for a national championship, and the sense around the program is that a split could happen during or after this season.
If that door opens, John Talty of CBS Sports reported that DeBoer is the leading target to replace Riley. Talty described USC’s interest as something people in the industry already know about, and suggested the ripple effect could be huge.
"It's kind of an open secret in the industry that if USC were to make a move, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer would be at the top of the list," Talty said. "That's what I was talking about earlier with potential dominoes. Things could get real wild real fast if a couple things go a certain way."
The case against Riley is pretty straightforward. In his time at USC, the Trojans have reached the conference championship game only once, in 2022, and they have never made the College Football Playoff.
This season looks headed toward another finish that falls short on both fronts. USC is 6-2 through eight games, and it is likely to be an underdog in at least two, and possibly three, of its final four games.
That kind of ending would make the path toward a change much clearer: a season with multiple losses down the stretch, another missed conference title game, and another year outside the CFP.
Riley, though, has kept saying he believes he is the right coach for the job and that USC is where he wants to be.
DeBoer is an interesting fit on paper, but a difficult one in practice. He already made the jump from Washington to Alabama to replace the legendary Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa, which makes a move back to the West Coast and to USC feel like a step in a different direction.
Money would also complicate any pursuit. DeBoer signed a new seven-year, $87.5 million contract ahead of the 2026 season, and he is set to make $12.5 million per year under a deal that runs through the 2032 season.
There are plenty of moving parts here, and that’s what makes the rest of the season worth watching. USC’s finish, Alabama’s situation, and the futures of both head coaches all appear tied into the same conversation.
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