Tag: 2023 Cotton Bowl

Trojans Wire discusses the “pinnacle” of USC’s success under Lincoln Riley

It has been a true roller-coaster ride in two seasons under Lincoln Riley.

We discussed the roller-coaster ride that USC Trojan fans have been on since the nadir at the end of the Clay Helton regime. We then pivoted to the excitement of the 2022 11-win season which carried USC to the Pac-12 Championship Game and within a few quarters of the College Football Playoff, only to come up short and then lose the Cotton Bowl to Tulane. We talked about the frustrations of the 2023 season and all its failures, and then moved to our current anticipation of the new USC defense heading into Lincoln Riley’s third season as the Trojans enter their first year in the Big Ten.

USC was unexpectedly strong in Year 1 under Lincoln Riley. USC was unexpectedly weak in Year 2 under Riley. One year was a study in overachievement, the next year a classic case of underachieving. What will Year 3 bring, as USC faces a crossroads moment in a new conference with one of the nation’s toughest college football schedules? Get more from our discussion on our USC show at The Voice of College Football:

https://www.youtube.com/live/ec1FoKT_GXo?si=pq4xkmu6fY8L379M&t=2670

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Tulane Green Wave appreciation: Willie Fritz, Michael Pratt, Tyjae Spears were fantastic, deserve a salute

USC lost a heartbreaker to #Tulane, but let’s also credit @GreenWaveFB for a fantastic turnaround — in the #CottonBowl itself, and also from 2021. What an effort!

The USC Trojans won four games in 2021 and earned a trip to the Pac-12 title game and the Cotton Bowl in Lincoln Riley’s first year.

Even after the loss to Tulane, this year is still a step in the right direction for the USC program.

However, it is worth noting that Tulane’s turnaround was out of this world. In 2021, the Green Wave won just two games. Then, Willie Fritz and his team won 11 games and then stunned the Trojans in a 46-45 victory in the Cotton Bowl in one of the best games of the entire season.

Tulane earned a ton of appreciation after the win, and deservedly so.

Alex Grinch’s defense lost the Cotton Bowl, but USC special teams failures contributed as well

A few huge special teams blunders cost #USC, reviving conversations about the need to hire an actual special teams coach. Will Lincoln Riley resist or adjust?

The USC Trojans have a lot of reasons for falling short in the Cotton Bowl. Tulane came storming back and got the 46-45 victory in one of the best games of the entire season for neutral fans who just wanted a fun game. They got one.

It wasn’t good or fun for USC fans, however.

The defense had plenty of issues once again and defensive coordinator Alex Grinch was back on the roster in the social media world after a terrible performance.

That said, special teams also had a couple of miscues. For starters, kicker Denis Lynch was short on a 52-yard field goal attempt in a dome; that would have been the longest kick of his career, but he didn’t have enough leg. That was jarring.

The other miscue was the difference maker: Mario Williams botched a late kickoff return and the Trojans ended up with the ball at their own 1-yard line, which led to a safety.

Where do we even begin? The defense was bad, but special teams was another talking point after the loss:

Lincoln Riley fields only 3 questions from reporters after stunning Cotton Bowl loss to Tulane

Lincoln Riley offered some quotes after the meltdown vs Tulane, but he also fielded just 3 questions, per the L.A. Times. Rivals will negatively recruit against USC for that.

The USC Trojans had a 15-point lead late in the fourth quarter of the Cotton Bowl, and everything seemed to be pointing to a bowl victory in Lincoln Riley’s first year on the job.

By the time the clock hit triple zero, Tulane had escaped with a 46-45 victory in one of the wildest finishes of the entire season.

Mario Williams bobbled the kickoff at the 1-yard line. Tulane got a safety, and then the Green Wave scored the game-winning touchdown with eight seconds left as the fans went wild.

It was another terrible effort by the defense, and it wasted a five-touchdown masterpiece from Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, not to mention a career outing from Brenden Rice.

There were plenty of quotes after this game, and it’s safe to say that USC is not pleased with how this season ended. How displeased was Riley?

Per Ryan Kartje of the Los Angeles Times, he fielded only three questions from reporters in the press conference following the Cotton Bowl.

Here’s what was said by Riley and others in the USC camp after a gut-punch loss:

Social Reactions: Tulane knocks off Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans in the Cotton Bowl

After taking a 12-point lead early in the fourth quarter, the USC Trojans were outscored 16-3 in their Cotton Bowl loss to Tulane and social media reacted accordingly.

Lincoln Riley strikes again. With a 12-point lead early in the fourth quarter. A field goal with 4:30 remaining in the game gave the Trojans a 15-point lead. Tulane proceeded to score 16 unanswered points, including a safety, to overcome the deficit and knock of the USC Trojans in the Cotton Bowl 46-45.

It was another terrible defensive effort from Alex Grinch’s defense against the Green Wave. Tyjae Spears did his best impersonation of Deuce Vaughn, running for 205 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 12.1 yards per carry in the game.

The Trojans struggled all year on defense, but the offense didn’t help much in the fourth quarter, giving up a safety to Tulane. Heisman trophy winner Caleb Williams and the Trojans were held to a field goal over the final 12 minutes of the game.

This game was reminiscent of several losses the Oklahoma Sooners suffered when Lincoln Riley was at the helm, most notably the Rose Bowl loss to Georgia. But also in a 2020 loss to Kansas State, where the Sooners were outscored by 17 points in the fourth quarter.

Riley’s teams have struggled to close out games over the years, and their Cotton Bowl performance was nothing new on that front.

The Tulane Green Wave pulled off an epic comeback at the expense of Lincoln Riley and the Trojans, and social media reacted accordingly.

Wille Fritz is a coaching superstar without the Power Five identity

Willie Fritz doesn’t coach at an elite football school, but he is an elite coach. Learn more about the man who will face Lincoln Riley and #USC in the #CottonBowl.

Willie Fritz is the college football head coach journalists and college football junkies love.

Fritz has done great work at non-Power Five conference programs, the out-of-the-way, off-the-beaten-path coaching stops which don’t receive major national attention.

Lots of us who blog about college football for a living have long felt that lower- or middle-tier Power Five schools in need of a coaching upgrade should have hired Fritz.

No Power Five athletic director has snapped up Fritz yet, however. Tulane is very thankful for that. Fritz, who has coached at Tulane since 2016, has won the AAC championship and the Group of Five title. He has led Tulane to its first New Year’s Six (formerly BCS/Bowl Alliance/Bowl Coalition/New Year’s Day) bowl appearance since the 1940 Sugar Bowl.

Learn more about Tulane’s excellent coach, who will match wits with Lincoln Riley on Jan. 2 in the 2023 Cotton Bowl:

USC Cotton Bowl opponent: Tulane 2022 season review and fast facts about the Green Wave

Learn more about the #Tulane team #USC will face on January 2, plus some fascinating facts about the Green Wave’s football history. #CottonBowl

The USC Trojans have their bowl opponent: the Tulane Green Wave. After Lincoln Riley’s team suffered heartbreak against Utah once again (this time in the Pac-12 title game), the Trojans go from a College Football Playoff spot to the Cotton Bowl.

Still, a New Year’s Six Bowl in the first year of the Riley era is a step in the right direction, and there is a lot to love about a USC-Tulane matchup in Texas. 

With the Cotton Bowl nearly a month away, let’s take a look at Tulane’s season and examine some of the key players as the Trojans try to finish the season with a bowl victory.

USC fans react to the news: the Trojans will face Tulane in the Cotton Bowl

One view among some #USC fans: It will be hard for the Trojans to be motivated for Tulane, and the team will be crushed in the media if it loses.

USC versus Tulane. It’s not the same as playing Ohio State, Michigan, or Georgia. It’s not a matchup which will generate huge national headlines, even though football junkies will love seeing Lincoln Riley match wits with Willie Fritz, two of the more creative and tactically astute head coaches in college football.

The very real possibility that Caleb Williams might not play in this game would take a lot of juice out of the event, but we don’t yet know that for sure. No one could have possibly imagined that USC’s bowl opponent would be one of the least successful programs in college football over the past 80 years … or that a program with Tulane’s minimal stature would get to a New Year’s Six game and meet the Trojans on that big stage.

USC fans realized on Saturday afternoon that Tulane would be the bowl opponent and the Cotton would be the game, which was subsequently confirmed on Sunday. Here’s a small taste of those reactions from the Trojan fan base: