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USC Makes Abrupt Change on Lincoln Riley's Staff

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Lorenzo J. Reyna | Last updated Apr 29, 2025 8:07 PM ET

USC football is opening up one position on Lincoln Riley's coaching staff.

The school announced Tuesday that strength and conditioning coach Bennie Wylie is no longer on the staff. Wylie happened to be one of Riley's first hires when he left Oklahoma for USC.

Los Angeles Times USC insider Ryan Kartje took to X to release a snippet from the Riley news release involving Wiley's departure.

"We are grateful for the many contributions Coach Wylie has made to our program throughout the last three seasons," Riley shared. "This is a difficult decision, but we are committed to positioning our program to compete for national championships as we continue to move forward into the 2025 season and beyond."

Reasons for Wylie's dismissal were not made public. Wylie's firing, however, got met with reactions.

"I can tell you this much about Bennie Wylie, he is well loved AND well respected by all he’s worked with," posted On3 USC insider Scott Schrader on X. "USC made an extremely difficult decision to part ways."

ESPN reporter Paolo Uggetti called it "surprising news" as well on X.

Even players once praised Wylie's contributions. Safety Kamari Ramsey described how grueling Wylie's workouts were during the winter.

"It was pretty harsh, especially running in the stadium and all that. But the weight room was probably the toughest," Ramsey said to Trojans Live in a March 2024 interview. "You're always trying to get big and add muscle mass because of the type of teams we're playing. You've got to get your body ready for that. So that was probably the biggest thing we had to do."

Wylie spent four seasons with USC. He's also worked with Texas Tech and the Dallas Cowboys.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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