We’re not going to come on here and tell you that the chief, central criticisms of Lincoln Riley are unfair.
We’re not going to tell you that Lincoln Riley doesn’t have a big-game problem.
We’re not going to tell you Lincoln Riley clearly values defense to the extent that he should.
We’re not going to tell you Lincoln Riley has the right defensive coordinator or that Riley’s teams are sufficiently physical and rugged against elite opponents.
We’re not going to tell you that Lincoln Riley has no weaknessses or limitations, or that he has figured out everything as a college football coach.
The main criticisms of him are fair … but there is one nuance we have to emphasize: The 2022 USC season is not the cornerstone argument to make against him. This year is not the centerpiece of any larger case against Lincoln Riley.
It’s his first year at a program. We knew he wouldn’t have the depth to give USC the same level of roster quality as Georgia. We knew that Utah would be a problem, given its experience and physicality.
Does Lincoln Riley have to answer questions about big-game performance and overall toughness and elite defense? Sure he does. It’s just that 2022 doesn’t represent a central failure on his part.
By nearly every measurement, he did more at USC in 2022 than most people expected.
In 2023, we’ll get a lot more scrutiny … and the long-term questions surrounding Riley will come into focus. If he fails to make the playoff in 2023, that will carry a lot more weight than anything which happened in 2022.
We discussed this with Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football:
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