LOS ANGELES -- The transfer portal was open less than 24 hours when Lincoln Riley appeared on USC's "Trojans Live" radio show Monday night. Already by that point, 11 players had announced their plans to hit the portal, among them the Trojans' right tackle, Mason Murphy, and running back of the future, Quinten Joyner -- two departures that stir red a frustrated fan base into a portal-induced panic.

So when Riley was asked about his approach to the transfer market, he had a point to make. College football, the coach opined, was now basically "a professional model." That meant "making some tough decisions" about "where to allocate reps or where to allocate resources, roster spots, all of those things."

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