By Kyle Golik
I give credit for the University of Central Florida (UCF) for attempting to gauge the interest in Southern California head coach Lincoln Riley for their head coach vacancy due to Gus Malzahn resigning and taking the Florida State offensive coordinator position. What UCF can boast where most can, it does claim that Colley Matrix national championship and the location in the Florida peninsula is a hotbed for recruiting along with being in a Power 4 conference, UCF shot its shot at Riley.
By all indications, Riley and his camp didn’t even dignify a response. I don’t blame Riley because by all accounts he is committed to Southern California for the long term. Riley said to The Athletic in 2023, “(he) didn’t come here (USC) for some short-term thing and as long as SC continues to give us the support and the things we need to continue to build this, this was not a two-year rebuild.”
By all accounts, the 2022 season where Southern California flirted with the College Football Playoff, played for a Pac-12 Championship, and had a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback in Caleb Wiliams seems like a distant memory following the disastrous two seasons.
While the heart and soul of Riley’s defensive staff is intact, assistant head coach and linebackers coach Matt Entz, who guided North Dakota State to a 60-11 record and two national championships, accepted the Fresno State head coaching position. Fresno State as it looks to make an impact in a rebuilt Pac-12 conference in 2026 needed to make a splash to make them competitive, seeing how Washington State flirted with a potential College Football Playoff berth made Fresno State attractive.
While the loss of Entz isn’t debilitating towards Riley’s efforts to rebuild the Trojan defense, it is a blow nonetheless.
This season, Riley’s bread and butter, the offense, packed the same firepower as a starting pistol. The offense averaged 29.8 points per game, the lowest in Riley’s head coaching career, as well the lowest passing offense since Riley’s final season at Oklahoma.
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Despite leading the Big Ten in passing yards per game, junior quarterback Miller Moss was benched for UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava. While Maiava had turnover problems himself, the potential of Maiava is backed by his superlatives against Notre Dame that PFF said Maiava had six big time throws and had a 91.9 offensive grade.
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In a way, Riley may have found his quarterback as Moss intends to enter the transfer portal, but I said similar things about Moss following his Holiday Bowl record performance of six touchdown passes, and even in Week 1 against LSU, Moss played at an elite level that got the Trojans a signature win.
It isn’t guaranteed Maiava is the answer, does Riley look at current signee Husan Longstreet, five-star No. 4 rated quarterback nationally by 247Sports from Centennial (Corona, CA), as a potential starter as well?
At some point, Riley’s situational awareness is alerting him that it is going to be infinitely harder in the Big Ten to rebuild. Coupled with the stigma of Riley’s inability to keep the elite California kids at home, with rival Dan Lanning and Oregon always in the Trojans’ home recruiting California kids to Eugene, many feel Riley has lost touch with what is essential to be successful as a Trojan head coach.
Why should Lincoln Riley go to the NFL now?
While Riley faces so many uphill journeys, the time is now for him to make the NFL jump.
Riley has two prime locations that he will seriously need to consider. With Riley’s intimate knowledge of Caleb Williams and the failures of Matt Eberflus that mounted for his inevitable termination, the first in-season termination of a Chicago Bears head coach in the 105-year history of the franchise. Riley makes sense considering the offensive investments the Bears have put in, especially at wide receiver where they spent their second first round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft for Washington’s Rome Odunze. The Bears have locked up D.J. Moore and veteran Keenan Allen have another season with the Bears.
The three pillars for a successful franchise is having a franchise quarterback, blind side tackle, and elite EDGE rusher.
Chicago has a bonafide franchise quarterback in Williams, at the blind side Braxton Jones is one of the more consistent left tackles. Jones was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team in 2022. Despite struggles this season facing the bullrushes of blitzers, Jones has typically been in the Top 25 amongst tackles for his pass-blocking grade.
The high draft pick the Bears certainly look to have they could invest in an EDGE rusher, whether it is Penn State’s Abdul Carter or Tennessee’s James Pearce Jr.
If Riley doesn’t want to be in the cold in Chicago and would like something where the pieces seem to be there, Dallas Cowboy fans could realize their fantasy of having Riley finally coach them.
I seriously doubt McCarthy is safe despite many players’ endorsements for his job. Remember this is Jerry’s World and withthe numerous embarrassments, we are due for a knee jerk reaction from him.
For Riley, if he has a healthy Dak Prescott, the offense is there. Riley would have a familiar face at wide receiver in CeeDee Lamb. The Cowboys arguably have the pre-eminent EDGE rusher in the game in Micah Parsons and the offensive line is not a glaring weakness.
There will be other options in the NFL for Riley as we inch closer to Black Monday in little over a month. Riley will obviously review the opportunities that present themselves, Southern California is a special job I am not denying that. Still, I feel Riley is a square peg in a round hole there, I feel that is what has developed really over his three seasons in Troy. Riley’s system worked in the Big XII as it was a pure run-and-shoot league and defense was optional. In the past two seasons, Riley has seen the tides shift, it’s time to recognize Riley didn’t strike gold in California and it’s time to move on to the NFL.
