Regarding USC’s latest 29-28 gut punch loss on the road in College Park I imagine Paul Finebaum is smirking and having a hard time not yelling out, “I told you so!” Regarding Lincoln Riley who he had previously called overrated in November of last year, on his show in June of this year—before the season even started—he indicated that it was quite possible USC would finish 2024 with a losing season and that; “I think it’s over for Lincoln Riley, anyway. To me, he’s lost control. And once you lose control, you’re like in the middle of quicksand.” Riley is now 22-12 as head coach of the Trojans, just six wins and three losses shy of the 28-15 record that Lane Kiffin had when he was pulled off the team bus at LAX at 3:00am in the morning after a 61-42 loss to Arizona State and told that he had been fired. And Kiffin had taken over a team that the NCAA had cited for a lack of institutional control and had levied a two-year postseason ban and loss of thirty scholarships over a three year period.
But Lincoln has all his scholarship players and USC is one of those programs whose fan base has little tolerance for loss. And now with more losses than wins you could certainly cite a lack of consistency. They started the season with a 27-20 win over now No. 7 LSU, lost by just 3 points to a recently unranked Michigan and then again to an excellent No. 3 Penn State. This one by one point to an unranked Maryland—who has lost to also unranked Michigan State and Northwestern—after having a 21-7 lead at the break and up by two TD’s with less than 14 minutes left in the game. Ultimately losing the game by failing to stop a two-point conversion, missing a field goal with two minutes left and allowing a TD drive in less than a minute aided by a USC pass interference call.
Personally I think it would be a mistake to jump in and axe Riley. He has a ton of Freshmen and Sophomores on this team and has just this year finally gotten a Defensive Coordinator that can, given the time, completely transform that side of the ball for the Trojans. Additionally they lost their terrific offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury to the NFL’s Washington Commanders—currently 1st in the NFC East—at the beginning of the year. They need more time to put this all together and I don’t think a fair call on it can be made until the end of next season. Regarding this year, they have just three wins and five games left and the LA Championship game in the Rose Bowl on Saturday, November 23rd, may end up deciding which one those teams makes it to a post season bowl this year.