It’s safe to say that Lincoln Riley’s USC football tenure thus far has gone nowhere near according to plan.
When the Trojans offered Riley a nine-figure contract three years ago to ditch the prairie of Norman, Oklahoma for the Hollywood spotlight, the expectation was that he would restore the Trojans’ program to their glory of years past. After four conference titles and three College Football Playoff appearances in five years at Oklahoma, the Trojans fully expected him to build a similarly dominant program there.
The result has been something completely different.
After a successful 11-3 debut campaign in 2022, the Trojans have gone just 14-11 over the past two seasons. USC has yet to win a conference title or make the playoff, despite it being expanded to 12 teams this year. While recruiting has certainly been better than it was under Clay Helton, Riley has yet to sign a top-five class at USC, something that it was expected he would do on a regular basis when he was hired.
Following a loss to Notre Dame and another meh signing day last week, national college football analyst Ari Wasserman of On3 Sports offered a damning quote regarding Riley’s USC tenure to date.
“It’s not that I was wrong about how Lincoln Riley would do as USC’s head coach that bugs me,” Wasserman said on Twitter. “It’s how truly awful it has been that blows my mind.”
Riley will be given a chance to turn things around at USC. With a buyout reportedly worth more than $80 million, the head coach is not going anywhere just yet.
But plain and simple, the results have been nowhere near good enough thus far. Unless Riley is able to execute a remarkable turnaround, it appears the Trojans will be no better than a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team moving forward.