By Kyle Golik
The other night, on an actual DVD (yes those still exist), I was watching the Robert De Niro 1993 classic “A Bronx Tale.” One of the lines that always hits me is, “The saddest thing in life is wasted talent, and the choices that you make will shape your life forever.”
In a lot of ways, Southern California head coach Lincoln Riley has been gifted the talent to mold quarterbacks and create offenses that are national championship caliber on a perennial basis. The quarterbacks that have gone through Riley’s system have achieved the highest of highs one can do in the college game, getting selected for the most part as the top choice in the NFL Draft, and get financially set for life.
Last season, Riley had another prodigy in Caleb Williams. Williams won the Heisman in 2022, and put up similar prolific numbers last season guiding the Trojans offense to 41.8 points per game, nearly a touchdown more than national champion Michigan offense.
We all know the defensive deficiencies that has plagued Riley during his time in Troy, and Riley confronted them head-on at his first Big Ten Media Days last week, “We know that’s an area that we have to take jumps, and that’s why we made the changes that we made. I think our team and the people within the walls and that actually know what’s going on feel that momentum.”
One of the players that feels the momentum is projected starting safety Kamari Ramsey. Ramsey played as a redshirt freshman for D’Anton Lynn’s defense at UCLA, where Ramsey started all 11 games and recorded 40 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, five pass breakups, and an interception, allowing only 11 receptions in coverage.
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Ramsey assessed the new dynamic of the new defensive coaching staff in the Trojans defensive room, “A lot of knowledge, a lot of gems being dropped from the coaches. It’s been great to learn from each coach. Each coach brings different energy. Coach (Eric) Henderson is loud, he’s got a lot of energy. Great teacher. Just with the Rams with Aaron Donald. Coach (Doug) Belk just came in, has been with national championship teams and knows how to win. Coach Lynn he’s only been a DC for one year, he is only going to get better. He has come from the NFL. There is a lot of knowledge, they know how to get to the next level, and the coaches know what it takes to win.”
In a lot of ways, it didn’t escape Riley the defensive deficiencies his Trojans have endured since his arrival in 2022.
What attracted Riley to Lynn was how Lynn was able to orchestrate a defensive turnaround at UCLA. He took a Bruins team that was 92nd in the nation in scoring defense in 2022 at 29 points per game allowing 403 yards of total defense to the 14th scoring defense last season at 18.4 points per game and 301.5 yards of total defense, “He obviously authored the biggest turnaround in defensive college football last year, and I got a front-row seat at it, I thought the changes he made there were staggering.”
Riley wasn’t done extending superlatives to his new defensive coaches during Big Ten Media Days, Matt Entz was lauded for all the experience he has brought to Riley’s coaching room and the culture change he is leading amongst the defense, “Yeah, hiring Matt Entz among others on the defensive staff were certainly just as important as the defensive coordinator hire. Matt was a little bit of an outside-the-box hire, but I’ve always been a fan of what those guys have done at North Dakota State, the job they’ve done developing players, consistently playing at a high level, playing very disciplined football. Then the ability to bring in a guy that’s been a coordinator, that’s been a head coach, I just felt like it’s going to make every part of our program better, not just our defense, not just our linebacker room. And he’s certainly done that. To be able — for D’Anton to have that guy in the room, for me to be able to grab Coach Entz and talk about things more from a head coaching perspective has been great. He’s brought some tremendous ideas in terms of development that we’ve implemented in our program.”
Entz during his time at North Dakota State went 60-11 at North Dakota State, guiding the Bison to two national championships and architecting the No. 18 scoring defense at the FCS level.
My colleagues have a different esteem for Riley.
In some ways, I agree with Rock Westfall when he says Riley is desperate We all can agree, Riley wasn’t brought into Southern California to finish 8-5. That would be a giant waste of $100 million that they could have kept Clay Helton on for. Ultimately, Southern California needed an infusion of talent, we all witnessed the offensive haul in 2022 with Williams, Travis Dye, and Jordan Addison amongst others, but there wasn’t that defensive infusion. Where Riley is at fault, and something I have burned him on, was his loyalty to Alex Grinch.
Grinch wasn’t able to get the talent necessary on the defensive side of the ball to complement Riley’s offense. This is why, in a lot of ways, it was sad to see Williams’ final season be wasted. There are plenty of coaches who would kill to have a Caleb Williams once, Riley has had lightning strike for him three times with Heisman quarterbacks. To watch Williams’ career be wasted with no New Year’s Six bowl wins, conference championships, or College Football Playoff appearances, is an indictment on Riley to the highest order.
I disagree with our website namesake Mike Farrell and question whether he knows what an imposter is.
He said in a recent “Mind of Mike” about Riley, “I’m not an expert on cowardice but I do know an imposter when I see one. Riley is slowly being exposed as the average coach he’s always been and is cashing $10 million a year to make USC worse than they were under Helton. And that’s astonishing.”
I hit on some of the points above, especially being able to attract the high-end defensive talent that Southern California desperately needs.
I don’t feel an average coach, or one suggested as an “imposter,” in one offseason can attract the defensive staff Riley did. Riley was able to sway an NFL position coach (Henderson), a crosstown defensive coordinator (Lynn), and a national championship-winning head coach (Entz), along with a secondary coach (Belk) who was recently amongst one of the hottest coaching commodities. Combined, they have 16 years of experience coaching in the NFL, four national championships, and a Super Bowl-winning position coach, who has coached arguably the greatest defensive player of this generation in Aaron Donald.
Average coaches don’t attract that sort of talent. Riley was desperate to make the right moves and somehow made them all. Now Riley has the defensive complement that matches his offensive prowess, all I can say is it will be better than 135 missed tackles this year.
