Inside the one-year makeover of Lincoln Riley's USC

INSIDE THE TRAINING complex named after head coach John McKay on USC's campus, there's a whiteboard that has become more than just the backdrop of a classroom. Earlier this year, as players came together to begin spring ball for a team that looked completely different than the season prior, the whiteboard served as a catch-all for what USC players and coaches believed needed to change for a program that had just gone 4-8 to have any semblance of success.

"We all talked about creating a standard when we got here," linebacker Shane Lee, who transferred from Alabama and became a team captain, said of what writing on the whiteboard signified. "That set the tone for everything we do. It's been…