Entering December of 2022, the situation couldn’t have been going any better for USC football. In Year 1 of the [autotag]Lincoln Riley[/autotag] era, the Trojans were headed to the Pac-12 championship game. A win over Utah in that game would have sent the Trojans to the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history.
Instead, Heisman Trophy winning quarterback [autotag]Caleb Williams[/autotag] was roughed up by Utah’s defense. And despite a 6-0 start to 2023, life has never really been the same in Troy since.
After the unbeaten Trojans were thoroughly dominated by Notre Dame 48-20 in mid-October, they went 1-5 in the back half of the regular season. Now they enter the Big Ten without Williams, who is off to the NFL, and considered only a fringe top-25 team.
As a result, one prominent national college football analyst has declared it’s over for Riley at USC.
After a discussion with analyst Bruce Feldman this week, Paul Finebaum said the following of Riley’s time with the Trojans:
“Bruce Feldman said a minute ago that he thought they are looking at about seven wins, which is pretty dangerous when you are the USC coach and you have two back-to-back bad seasons,” Finebaum said.
“I mean, 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,” Finebaum added.
USC opens the year against LSU and trips to Michigan and Washington await. The Trojans also welcome stiff competition against Penn State and Notre Dame in the Coliseum.
I don’t know if I’m willing to go nearly as far as Finebaum does with Riley. Navigating the name, image and likeness licensing landscape and transfer portal in a new location is ridiculously tough. However, the stock has certainly dipped with a difficult season likely ahead.
Not that Riley has been without fault at USC, but from afar it seems the university and athletic department aren’t as invested in fielding a football powerhouse as they seemed to be not long ago.
Declaring it over is a bit strong but I’d expect nothing more from Finebaum. It is safe to say USC is entering its third year of Lincoln Riley in a place they certainly didn’t expect to be at this point.
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