USC football is getting talked about a lot — but not in a consistently positive way. It’s clear that the Trojans have to earn back respect and trust. Ducks Wire offered this appraisal of the Trojans heading into the 2024 season:
“the Trojans are going to have a difficult time competing with the elite teams of their new league, at least right away. USC has never had a problem acquiring talent. It’s what they do with that talent has been the question mark. Now it’s going to have to recruit more directly against teams such as Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, and Oregon still pick off talent in their own backyard. Hopefully, Lincoln Riley is up to the task.”
Ducks Wire is gentle in its treatment of USC. Another national college football talker isn’t being gentle at all.
Earlier this week, talk show host Paul Finebaum said he would have fired USC head coach Lincoln Riley this offseason. Just two days later, he doubled down at SEC Media Days.
“Quite frankly, had I been the athletic director at USC, I would’ve fired Lincoln Riley because he has yet to show, after many years as a head coach, he knows anything about defense — he’s gone through defensive coordinators; he just simply couldn’t handle it. And now things are going to be five times worse in the Big Ten. … This is a guy who owned LA for about half a minute, and next year at this time, I think he’ll more than likely be an assistant in the NFL — if he’s that lucky.”
You can watch Paul Finebaum, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and Harry Douglas debate if Lincoln Riley has been a “disaster” at USC as the Trojans enter the Big Ten.
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