Our friends at Ducks Wire do a great job covering Oregon football and Oregon athletics. As the Big Ten season comes closer, Ducks Wire is looking at the various football programs in the conference. USC received a full examination from Ducks Wire analyst Don Smalley. The assessment of Lincoln Riley’s job security with the Trojans is very reasonable:
They made a huge splash with the hire of Riley and at first it was a success with an 11-3 record and quarterback Caleb Williams securing the Heisman Trophy. But a disappointing 2023 where the Trojans fell to 8-5 again, losing five of their final six games. Now 2024 won’t be a make-or-break season for Riley, but another season like that will cause the whispers to become louder and that seat to become a bit warmer than usual.
That’s an accurate assessment: 2024 is not make-or-break, but it is very important and will set the stage for 2025. If USC is 7-5 this year, Riley will indeed be on the hot seat at the start of the 2025 season, and he will be coaching for his job. We think USC will be a lot better than 7-5 this year, but if 2024 is a bad season, Riley will go to the hot seat in 2025.
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