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Lincoln Riley declines to comment on ‘surprising’ Bear Alexander news
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Lincoln Riley still doesn’t want to talk about Bear Alexander.
News broke on Wednesday that Alexander – a former 4-star recruit who transferred to USC from Georgia in 2023 – is sidelining himself for the rest of this season. Alexander’s guardian Tony Jones confirmed to a number of news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, that the defensive tackle intends to redshirt this season to preserve a year of eligibility.
Alexander was a reserve player on Georgia’s 2022 national title team, coming up with 2 sacks in 12 games, and tallied a total of 48 tackles across 13 contests for USC last season. But his role has appeared to diminish with the Trojans this year. In a loss to Michigan, Alexander played just 21 snaps.
Talking with reporters via Zoom on Thursday, Riley refused to talk about Alexander’s status.
“I know y’all saw the surprising news from yesterday. Not going to be taking (questions on) any of those internal matters and discussing, not going to take any questions on the subject,” Riley said. “We’re fired up for the guys that we have and are playing. We’re excited about our Big Ten home opener against a really good Wisconsin team.”
When asked about Alexander earlier this week, Riley claimed there was “no story there,” regarding the playing time the DL was receiving.
A 4-star defensive tackle from Terrell, Texas in the 2022 class, Alexander was a highly sought-after recruit, ranked as the 50th-best overall player in his class by 247Sports. The 6-foot-3 defensive lineman signed with Georgia over offers from Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, LSU, Minnesota, Ole Miss and Texas A&M, among others.
As a true freshman, Alexander had 2 tackles-for-losses in Georgia’s national championship win over TCU. When he entered the transfer portal, he was again courted by many of the top programs in the country and joined USC.
While Alexander seemed poised for a big role in USC’s defense this year, Wyoming transfer Gavin Meyer and Vanderbilt transfer Nate Clifton have gotten the majority of snaps as starting defensive tackles.