Lincoln Riley’s hiring at USC sent a clear message from USC to the rest of college football: the Trojans are going to be back. Introducing one of the brightest and most accomplished young coaches in the sport to one of the strongest and most storied institutions in college football brought expectations.

When he took the dais at Pac-12 Media Day before his first season, Riley embraced those expectations.

“What’s the goal this year?” he was asked.

“To win the championship,” he said.

You don’t go to Los Angeles to do things small, he said many times this offseason.

“We didn’t come here to play for second. We are not wired that way. We came here competitively to win championships, win them now and to win them for a long time,” he said. “That will always be our expectation.

“You’ve got to see the opportunity in it. The opportunity is, if you do it well, anything is possible. This is one of those places. This is one of those programs. Frankly, this is one of those cities that if you do it well here, the sky’s the absolute limit.”

USC wrapped the regular season on Saturday with a 38-27 win over Notre Dame. USC will take an 11-1 record into the Pac-12 Championship Game next Friday against Utah. The seven-game improvement from last year’s 4-8 record matches the program record for the single largest year-over-year turnaround.

The last time USC enjoyed a seven-win improvement year-over-year, it won a national championship.

The Trojans appear to be one win away from the opportunity to play for another national championship.

“I can’t say ‘Yes, I knew this was gonna happen,’ but at the same time, I don’t believe in putting limits on what you can accomplish,” Riley said Saturday night. “Especially if you get the right people in the building and everybody decides to be unselfish and work hard for each other. That’s what this group has done. They’re a great example of when you do that, the worst thing you could ever do is put limits on what you can accomplish.

“You guys know me, I stood right by what I told you our expectations were from Day 1. A lot of people thought I was crazy, and that’s fine. People within the walls knew what we were about and I think had a sense of what we were building, and it’s been a fun run.”

And it’s not done yet.