USC coach Lincoln Riley hoping first-ever ‘Director of AI’ will finally get him to promised land

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USC football has not won a national championship since 2003 and 2004. Lincoln Riley was brought in to change that. Riley has not delivered yet, as the team has not even been to the College Football Playoffs.

Now, Riley and USC are making a change to the program that they hope will change the landscape of USC football, per Pete Nakos of On3.

USC is promoting Conor McQuiston to Director of AI.

“McQuiston will build AI models using program data to identify competitive advantages in everything from game planning to scouting,” the post from On3 read.

McQuinston has worked in some roles that serve well for a role in AI, according to On3.

“He worked at Prize Picks where he served for a year (2024-2025) as an associate data scientist for game operations with a focus on the NFL. Prior to his time at Prize Picks, McQuiston spent two years at the NFL as both a lead research analyst and before that a seasonal research analyst for Next Gen Stats,” his profile reads.

McQuiston was also with Michigan in 2021, when he was working as an undergraduate analytics manager. That year, Michigan went 11-1 and lost in the College Football Playoff semi-final to Georgia.

The hope is McQuinston will help USC get back to glory. Since Pete Carroll left following the 2009 season, the program has won just one conference title, winning the Pac-12 in 2017 under Clay Helton. USC returned to the PAC-12 title game in 2022 in the first year under Riley, but lost to Utah, and then fell in the Cotton Bowl to Tulane. Since joining the Big Ten, Riley is just 16-10, but did finish in the Top 25 in 2025.

Expectations for USC are for the team to compete for a playoff spot in 2026. Now, the new Director of AI will hope to help that goal.

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USC coach Lincoln Riley hoping first-ever ‘Director of AI’ will finally get him to promised land

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