USC HC Lincoln Riley fires back at Pat Narduzzi for Jordan Addison "tampering" claims

When Jordan Addison hit the transfer portal, there were evidence-less claims that USC Football Head Coach Lincoln Riley had tampered with him to hit the portal and sign with USC. There was literally ZERO evidence to any of this, but angry USC football haters had to try something.

Of course, there were no issues with Addison getting over here because there was no truth to the "tampering" talk. However, when Addison hit the portal it was reported that Pitt Head Coach Pat Narduzzi called Riley multiple times to baselessly accuse him of tampering.

Riley was asked about this at Pac-12 Media Day, and he said what he needed to say. He wasn't afraid to stand up for himself and address the outrageous and random false claims being made against him.

"Yeah, I mean, we've worked hard through our careers as coaches, my career as a coach, to do things with integrity... ...I think if you ask people that have been around us, been in the inner workings with us, they know how we go about our business. When someone challenges that with no facts and just only emotion, yeah, I mean, I think you take it personally. Absolutely you do."

- Lincoln Riley, USC Football Head Coach

USC Football Head Coach Lincoln Riley was right to take Pat Narduzzi's unnecessary attack personally.

Lincoln Riley wouldn't allow Pat Narduzzi to assassinate his character simply by being a great coach for USC football and bringing in Jordan Addison.

"I understand this is an emotional time, it's an emotional game with a lot of emotional people," said Riley. "We recruited Jordan just like we did every other transfer. Jordan got in the transfer portal. Jordan came on a visit to USC."

It's good that Riley was able to get this off his chest. This was the first time he had the chance to do this, and did a great job destroying the haters' moronic claims. If proof is found of this, then their claims and frustration would be understandable. There is no proof, however, so it's all ridiculous.

The anger that sparked these people to make these accusations was due to the fact that Riley is such a strong roster-builder that he was able to take over USC after the season was over, and in that short period of time, catapult the Trojans from an overall recruiting ranking outside the top 100 to the top six.

When Riley added Addison, the 2021 Biletnikoff winner, these people were triggered even further. Adding a receiver who is coming off of an 100 catch/1,593 yard/17 TD season to an offense that features the best offensive coach in America and a top three QB who Addison already has chemistry with is a dangerous combination.

USC has returned to being the most hated college football program in the nation this offseason. They remained hated these past few years when they were down, but the hate dipped a little bit.

Now with the program on the fast track to a return to glory, the rest of the country doesn't know how to handle it. It makes for many laughs that this fan base will continue to share together.