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Lincoln Riley makes pitch to change 4-game redshirt rule
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Lincoln Riley argued for a change to the 4-game redshirt rule during his weekly media availability on Tuesday night.
Already this season, USC has dealt with a couple of players choosing to sit out the rest of the year in order to preserve a year of eligibility. Bear Alexander made that choice last week and now linebacker Raesjon Davis has announced a similar decision after playing in USC’s first 4 games to start the year.
Riley shared what his plan would be to tweak the rule.
“I think guys should have 5 years,” Riley said. “Do whatever you want. Play as much as you want or as little as you want and the only way you get an extra one is if you have 2 season-ending injuries where you missed the whole season.
“I think it should be that plain and simple and be done. And then nobody will have to worry about all this other crap about how many games you played and all that. I understand why it’s there, but I still think it’s a little bit behind the times.”
It wasn’t that long ago when playing even 1 snap would burn a player’s ability to use a redshirt year. That rule changed to the current 4-game maximum in 2018.
USC will play on the road at Minnesota this weekend.
Spenser is the news manager at Saturday Road and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.