Mike Farrell Sports

College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

Lincoln Riley is Flailing & Drowning in Desperation

The USC head coach enters Year 3 on a warming seat

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Jan 2
Jan 2

By Rock Westfall

If you ever want to consider the foolish folly of conventional wisdom and groupthink, examine the plight of Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans. In December 2021, Riley was greeted by the Trojans as a savior, especially with a strong record at Oklahoma where he developed Heisman Trophy-level QBs. The media sang hosannas, proclaiming a dynasty beckoned in Hollywood. Instead, Riley is on a warm seat that could quickly become a raging inferno.

On October 14, 2023, USC was ranked 9th in the land with a record of 6-0. But at Notre Dame Stadium on prime-time national television, Riley’s program was exposed as soft and defenseless. His house of cards collapsed in a 48-20 loss that was worse than the score indicated. USC limped home with five losses in its final six regular-season games. After a Holiday Bowl win, the Trojans finished 8-5.

Riley was not hired at USC to go 8-5, especially in his second season and with 2022 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams. Following last year’s debacle, Riley was forced to clean house on the defensive side of the football and will be rebuilding with a new staff. Also, he must tutor a new starting quarterback.

In Year 3, Riley rebuilds instead of reloads, which is not why he was brought in. Clay Helton could do this – and perhaps do it better.

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A B1G new challenge  

Not only is Riley trying to rebuild USC, but he is undertaking the plan in a new league. The Trojans are about to play their first season in the Big Ten after leading the implosion of the Pac-12. Crosstown rival UCLA is also coming along for the extra revenue. Later, the Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies joined the Big Ten as well to apply the dagger to the Pac-12.

USC will find the Big Ten far more physical than the Pac-12. Players and coaches will tell you it takes several days to recover from Big Ten matchups. By November, players are playing hurt each game. Brute force rather than fancy whiteboard plays on grass are the norm. The Big Ten is an entirely different culture that the Trojans were not built for. Now Riley, who fancies himself as the ultimate designer of elegant passing attacks and finesse football, must adapt or die. He addressed his plight Wednesday at Big Ten Media Days.

An odd mixture of bravado and alibis  

When addressing the media at Big Ten Media Days, Riley opened with the braggadocio of a national champion.

“We are at the top of the Big Ten,” Riley said. “We’re at the top of any conference. I don’t ever look at ourselves as below anybody. And never will. Listen, two years ago, look where Ohio State and Oregon were. Look what they took over. Look what we took over. It takes time. I’m not a magician. I can’t wave a magic wand, and everything is perfect right away. But find one area where we haven’t made progress. It’s coming. Nothing is going to stop it.”

There was more hot air and bloviating bluffs when Riley said, “The one thing that I’ve been steadfast on since the day I got to Los Angeles was our standards will never change there. Our standards at USC are to compete for championships.” 

Seriously.

But with that came whining and excuses when Riley said, “I’m not a magician, I can’t wave a magic wand, and everything just is perfect right away. But find one area that we haven’t made progress,” he continued. “So, this thing’s got momentum. It’s coming. Nothing’s gonna stop it. That’s fine – they started at a different point. We’ll see where it ends up.”

And then Riley threw USC under the bus, passing the buck with, “We’re playing catch-up in facilities, we’re playing catch-up in NIL, we’ve been playing catch-up in resources within the program,” Riley said. “We’ve been playing catch-up in damn near every way that you can think of. But when we catch up, and we are going to catch up, that’s when the things that this place has that others don’t show up again. And it’s comin’.”

Riley also bemoaned Nick Saban‘s strategic scheduling to help forge his Alabama dynasty and said he would consider canceling the historic and nationally popular Notre Dame rivalry series if necessary.

Riley’s performance was not that of a stand-up masculine coach. He came off as a whiny weasel. It’s doubtful his performance won converts.  

USC fans and boosters own much of the blame  

In Clay Helton’s second season as USC coach, the Trojans went 10-2 and won the Rose Bowl with a final AP ranking of 3rd. In his third year, USC went 11-3 with a Pac-12 championship. By contrast, Lincoln Riley is nowhere near that in his third season. And Riley had significantly more support than Helton did.

After Helton won the Pac-12, the Trojan faithful could have gone all in with and embraced his regime. Instead, they merely tolerated Helton and looked for the first excuse they could find to undermine him. When the Pac-12 championship campaign was followed up with a 5-7 season, the revolt was en masse. Helton could not recruit effectively with two consecutive years of hot seat talk and fans rooting for USC to lose so they could be rid of him.

Had USC fully supported and invested in Helton’s program when it had the chance, would they be any worse off than they are now? Not likely.

But USC wanted to live the life of Riley. Instead, they are in a nightmare.

In his third season as the “savior” of USC football, Riley uttered the “R” word several times at Big Ten Media Days. Indeed, Riley admitted that in his third season, he is in the midst of a rebuild.

Clay Helton is now the head coach of Georgia Southern. One wonders if he is allowing himself a chuckle. Meanwhile, in Norman, Oklahoma, the laughter can be heard all the way to Hollywood.

Cry On!

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