By Scott Salomon
There will be no national title in Tinsel Town this season. The ticket remains unpunched and the dreams of playing in the College Football Playoff died at Notre Dame Stadium Saturday night before 77,622 rabid Irish fans.
After the 48-20 drubbing in South Bend, Lincoln Riley and his USC Trojans suffered yet another embarrassing loss to the Irish which potentially ends their hopes of gaining a birth in the College Football Playoff.
USC coach Lincoln Riley will now go down in history as having quarterbacks Jalen Hurts, Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, and now Caleb Williams and fail to win a College Football Playoff game or a national title with any of these perennial college superstars, that all enjoyed success in the NFL Draft.
“Incredibly disappointing night. We lost the turnover battle 5-0 and had too many negative plays. We’re really disappointed in that locker room,” Riley said. We are disappointed that we didn’t play well enough to win. We were right there and started to get into a rhythm on offense. I still believe in this football team. We just have to put it all together.”
Riley got outcoached by Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman and USC was beaten in every phase of the game. Heisman Trophy winner Williams threw three first-half interceptions and USC finished with five turnovers on the evening. That was more than they had suffered thus far in the entire season.
🚨 Marcus Freeman haters 🚨
In just two seasons as Notre Dame’s Head Coach, Marcus Freeman at home has as many AP Top 10 wins as Brian Kelly did in his 12 years there.
h/t @TimBourret pic.twitter.com/6jhHaTqv97
— College Football Report (@CFBRep) October 15, 2023
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“I still very much believe in this football team — one thousand percent,” Riley told reporters in his postgame press conference. “The good that you see from this football team is good enough to beat anybody, but we obviously know we’ve got to put it together and put it together quickly to get our best and to get it from all three sides and be able to rise together.”
Lincoln Riley after the loss:
“We’ve got to go fix the things that we gotta fix. We gotta coach and play better. But is it in our power? Is it something we’re capable of? I believe it to my core and we’re going to go fight our ass off to get it done.”https://t.co/DFjAxGGDct pic.twitter.com/UuLtNUSTQm
— Ryan Young (@RyanYoungRivals) October 15, 2023
Williams suffered his worst loss as a Trojan and did not make the right reads when his receivers were covered. He completed 62 percent of his passes and accounted for 191 passing yards of offense.
“I made mistakes that I usually don’t make, Williams said. “Nights like tonight happen. Games like this happen. You play for a while and you are bound to have games like this. A couple of throws that I always make, I just didn’t make tonight.”
Riley failed to make the correct adjustments and just allowed the onslaught to ensue. It was the worst Riley offensive performance since 2015.
The USC coach is resting his laurels that the Trojans are undefeated in PAC-12 play. While he maintains that the season is not over by any stretch, the Trojans still have to play Utah, Washington, and Oregon. A tall stretch by any imagination. If they play the way they did Saturday night, there will be no Hollywood ending.
The Notre Dame rivalry game kickstarted a stretch that sees the Trojans set to face ranked teams in five of its final six games. USC gets three of those remaining four games against currently ranked opponents at home — Utah, Washington, and UCLA — but travel next month to current No. 8 Oregon, who lost Saturday afternoon to Washington.
“I reminded this team and will remind everybody, we’re undefeated in this conference right now,” Riley said. “We play in right now what I think is the best conference in college football, top to bottom, and every opportunity that we want is waiting for us.”
Yes, Michael Penix, Jr. and Bo Nix are waiting to sic their teeth into that garbage defense that USC has and that could spell the end for defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.
“We have a lot of corrections that we have to fix. We are looking forward to bouncing back and playing better next week,” Riley said. “When you lost the turnover battle 5-0, you negate a pretty stout defensive performance or anything that you do on special teams. We had an uphill battle the entire night.”
Riley went on to lament the three picks and two fumbles that they suffered on offense and how they were hard to bounce back from.
“Our bad plays are killing us. We have to do a better job taking care of the football. We had some stretches of good play, but we have not been able to put it all together,” Riley said. “We have to put it together quickly. The thing we can’t do is let tonight beat us twice.”
Despite losing every major statistical category and getting throttled by Sam Hartman and the Fighting Irish, Riley still thinks that the grass will be greener on the back side of the PAC-12 schedule when they face two Heisman Trophy candidates in Nix and Penix, Jr.
“The reality is we are not that far away,” Riley said. “There was just a couple of bad calls by me, we missed a couple of runs and took our turns making mistakes. We got beat in pass protection and got beat in one on ones.”
Riley went on to add, “It’s not always gonna be like this, we are one big game and one big win right now from having all the momentum in the world,” Riley said. “The margins are so thin, but when you are on the road against a good team, there were a lot of errors that were totally on us. One big win next week against a good football team and this all goes away.”
That big win is going to have to come against Utah in the Coliseum and despite Cam Rising not playing due to injury, the Utes are going to be awfully difficult to defend especially when you play the way the Trojans played Saturday night.
“We put ourselves in so many long-yardage situations and have to protect better. We cannot put ourselves in bad positions against a good defense,” Riley said. “We have to believe in one another, and stick together.”
Riley’s parting words were easier said than done.
“We have to coach and play better and we are going to go and fight our ass off.”
