USC head coach Lincoln Riley is back in the mix for one of college football’s most respected coaching honors.
Riley was included Thursday on the 2026 Dodd Trophy preseason watch list, putting him among 20 head coaches viewed as early contenders for the award. The Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation and the Peach Bowl weigh more than just wins when selecting the winner, with the process also taking into account how a program performs academically and in the community.
The watch list was built using each school’s Academic Progress Rate, Graduation Success Rate, commitment to service and charity, and projected success for the 2026 season. USC posted an APR of 993 out of 1,000 for 2024-25.
Several familiar names joined Riley on the list, including Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer, Texas A&M’s Mike Elko and Ohio State’s Ryan Day, who was a finalist last year. Freeman, DeBoer, Elko and Day all earned perfect 1,000 APR scores. The group also features Illinois’ Bret Bielema, Oregon’s Dan Lanning, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, who won the trophy in 2015, and Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, last year’s winner.
For Riley, the recognition comes as he heads into his fifth season with the Trojans. USC is coming off a 9-4 campaign that ended with a loss in the Alamo Bowl. The Trojans went 7-2 in their second season in the Big Ten and finished No. 20 in the Associated Press top 25 poll.
USC is also trying to build toward a bigger breakthrough in 2026. With a brand new defense and a new coordinator in charge of special teams, the Trojans are aiming for their first College Football Playoff appearance.
Riley was not on last year’s watch list, though he did make the Dodd Trophy preseason watch list before the 2024 season and was added to the midseason watch list during the 2023 season.
The field will change again in October when a midseason watch list is released to add or trim candidates. The final group will be selected by a panel that includes previous winners, national media, a member of the Dodd family and a College Football Hall of Fame member. The winner of the 2026 Dodd Trophy will be announced in Atlanta during the week leading up to the quarterfinals game of the College Football Playoff at the Peach Bowl.
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Honor Faalave-Johnson, Quentin Hale and Jalen Flowers were especially hard to miss, each showing why USC has been so aggressive in this part of the recruiting map. The most intriguing part for the Trojans is how many of these players are not just winning one-on-one snaps, but impacting games in multiple spots on the field, which is exactly the sort of development that can turn a strong summer showing into something much bigger once the season starts. [Read more 🡒]