The Times of Troy: At the end of Year 3, USC has yet to find its identity under Lincoln Riley
Lincoln Riley with his players during the Notre Dame loss. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
Ryan Kartje (LA Times) — Hi, everyone! I’m Ryan Kartje, the USC beat writer at the L.A. Times, reporting to you from the final days of another frustrating USC football regular season.
Since beating Notre Dame two years ago, in a game that appeared to announce the Trojans’ triumphant return as contenders, Lincoln Riley has barely managed to keep USC above .500.
Consider this: During his worst two-season stretch at USC, from 2018 to 2019, previous coach Clay Helton was 13-12. That was viewed, at the time, as a cataclysmic result, worthy of planes over the Coliseum calling for his firing.
But Helton had two 10-plus win seasons and a Rose Bowl victory on his resume by that point. Riley is 14-11 through his last two campaigns — one game better than Helton at his absolute worst — and he hasn’t given much reason to believe things will get better from here.
The coach was given a chance to state that case Saturday night, in the aftermath of USC’s 49-35 loss to No. 5 Notre Dame. But Riley said he didn’t think it was “the appropriate time” to consider where the program was headed.
“I don’t shy away from it,” he assured. “I could sit up here for an hour and talk about the things I know are happening within this program. I could rattle off all the stats. I could show you the facilities. I could show you recruiting. I could show you the staff. I could go on about that for an hour.”
But since he won’t talk about it, I suppose I’ll do it for him.
Even if USC’s record doesn’t reflect it, Riley is right that there was some progress this season. The Trojans always kept it close, having led in the fourth quarter in five of their six losses. The defense also clearly made major strides under new coordinator D’Anton Lynn. This is a better team than the one that finished 8-5 last year. But as we look toward the future, it’s not clear at all how the program plans to get better going forward, aside from Riley crossing his fingers and hoping for the best.
There are still questions at quarterback, where Jayden Maiava has tons of big-play potential, but not nearly enough polish yet to fully elevate USC’s offense. There are full-blown alarm bells along the offensive line, where the Trojans are set to lose their senior center (Jonah Monheim), their most consistent interior presence (Emmanuel Pregnon) and potentially their right tackle and have no discernible plan outside of counting on progress from its young prospects.
The uncertainty is even more pronounced on defense, where USC desperately needs more talent along the defensive front. They could find that in the transfer portal, though that approach has already proven to be hit-or-miss the last two offseasons.
Five-star defensive lineman Jahkeem Stewart, the No. 16 player in the 2025 class, could help with that talent deficiency, assuming he commits to USC as expected. But a freshman can only do so much. The truth is the Trojans need several top talents like Stewart to fill out its defense. That’s going to take time.
But of all the concerns surrounding Riley, the most pressing, I think, was one posed last night by former USC Heisman winner and Fox analyst Matt Leinart.
“Finish 6-6 and just really have no clue what we are,” Leinart wrote on X after the game. “Who are we? There’s no identity.”
He’s right. What does USC have to hang its hat on after a season spent trying to fit a square peg into a round hole? Where do the Trojans look to for hope in the future? Riley didn’t want to build around the rushing attack this season, even with one of the best backs in the Big Ten at his disposal. He didn’t have a superstar quarterback such as Caleb Williams to count on, and Riley failed to adjust accordingly. And while USC’s defense improved this season, it’s nowhere near talented enough to expect it to become an elite unit any time soon.
Riley will have plenty of questions to answer about USC’s direction ahead of next season. He wanted no part in answering those Saturday. Don’t be surprised if he doesn’t really over the next month, either.
But with patience wearing thin, and another disappointing regular season in the books, Riley won’t be able to outrun them much longer.
Extra points
Woody Marks gets hand slaps from fans before his last home game during senior introductions against Notre Dame. (Gina Ferazzi/LAT)
—Maiava made a pretty convincing case to be USC’s quarterback next season. Throw out the two pick-sixes, as far as auditions go, this was a good one. Maiava was the only reason USC had any chance against Notre Dame on Saturday, as he routinely made eye-popping throws downfield. Maiava made six big-time throws, per Pro Football Focus, the most of any Power 4 quarterback in any game this week — and one more than Williams had in a game at USC. Maiava still has a lot to clean up, but he just started working with a quarterbacks coach last spring. He should be even more comfortable next season. The question, as we approach the offseason, is whether Riley will try to bring in another transfer to push him.
—If any assistant coach deserves scrutiny this season, it’s Dennis Simmons. USC’s receivers coach was handed what appeared to be an embarrassment of riches at the position. But his young wideouts never came close to reaching their ceiling. Fresh off an outstanding freshman season, Zachariah Branch regressed as a sophomore. Ja’Kobi Lane and Duce Robinson both impressed in flashes, but never quite put it all together. Makai Lemon was easily USC’s best receiver this season, but barely saw any targets until midway through the season. Receiver was supposed to be the strength of USC’s offense. It wasn’t anywhere close.
—This wasn’t the way Woody Marks should have gone out. Easily the team’s MVP this season, Marks exited in the first quarter with an injury and never returned. It was an unfortunate way for Marks’ tenure as a Trojan to end. Presumably, he won’t play in the bowl game as he prepares for the NFL draft. But he’ll go down as one of the better running backs in recent memory at USC. Fortunately for the Trojans, they have a strong replacement waiting in the wings in Quinten Joyner.
—Listed among the Trojans being honored Saturday on Senior Daywere several players who still have eligibility … if they choose to use it. Among the most notable: Right tackle Mason Murphy, receiver Kyron Hudson, tight end Lake McRee and cornerback Prophet Brown. Murphy would be a big loss, for depth reasons, while Hudson and McRee could probably both use another year before they try to make the NFL leap. Quarterback Miller Moss, another who was honored Saturday, has already entered the transfer portal and will use his last season of eligibility elsewhere.
—He very nearly made it the whole season. But Eddie Czaplicki’s no-touchback streak officially ended in USC’s final regular-season game. He nearly lost the streak on a 74-yard (!!) punt that was called back because of a penalty, only to lose it later in the third quarter. A devastating result for those of us counting on the punter to provide the joy in this USC season.
AD on ND-USC
Fifty years after he helped engineer the greatest comeback in college football history, I called up the Notre Dame Killer himself to ask about the possibility that USC’s rivalry with Notre Dame might not survive past 2026, when its current contract runs out.
Let’s just say Anthony Davis didn’t take kindly to the concept of canceling a rivalry that traces back a century.
“I’ll put them in their place,” Davis said. “These people are smoking.”
The idea of ending the series was first floated by Riley last August at Big Ten media day, as the coach considered the future of nonconference scheduling in the 12-team College Football Playoff era. Still, Davis didn’t see the logic in his reasoning.
“I know things change,” Davis said. “Life changes. Circumstances change. But they need to try to keep this rivalry going. It’s part of history. It’s football lore. You need to have that rivalry going.”
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Neither Bohn nor Folt had the authority to ink the LR contract and stroke that check. They HAD to take it to the BOT. Beyond a certain pre-set authority, only the executive committee of the BOT possess that power of the pen. With regard to capitol expenditures, USC operates much like an insurance company. Unfortunately, USC’s staggering ten year contract resembled the same stupid ass mistakes which brought down mighty AIG. The limited public documents available confirm USC is operating on a deficit this year.
I don’t think Lincoln Riley is going anywhere for at least two years. We spent our load thinking that we had brought in the next Urban Meyer, and it turns out that he was just a slightly more competent player’s coach a la Helton. I said it last week — that I saw everything I needed to see to understand why we are where we are at this point under LR in that locker-room celebration after we beat UCLA (a sub-.500 failure that recruits well below us, and we needed all the best bounces to beat them). Look, it is… Read more »
I remember now that I really pushed hard for Urban Meyer. I even wrote a long email to my fraternity brother (Caruso) about how Meyer would be the guy to turn the program around. I don’t know if he read it or not.
Folt and the rest of the wokesters on the faculty and B o T would never allow it. But Folt is leaving….
I think LR needs to talk to Pete Carroll about preparing a team mentally. This team plays hard. I don’t think that they need to be prepared to play touch. They may need more physical players. But championship teams have a mentality about them. Mentally, they expect to win those close games. I could be wrong but this team doesn’t seem to have the championship mentality. It’s a mental thing. This team played hard all year. Yet they found a way to lose games all year long in the 4th quarter. Pete Carroll was good at preparing a team mentally… Read more »
The winter of life approaches. Time waits for no Trojan. Allen Wallace correctly pointed out we are “bootstrapped” to LR. This colossal, illusory 10 year contract put Trojan nation’s
feet in concrete, and after year one, LR pushed us off the pier. LR will metaphorically ride Traveler until the horse drops in year ten. Neither Dallas nor Chicago will come to our aid. Meanwhile the clock runs, and we are left with fading memories of yesteryear. Oh the old joy of simply being “competitive” once again before the snow flies and the lake freezes. Fight On!
Being bootstrapped to a “bust” head coach is no way to go through life.
USC is literally a prisoner of its own mismanagement of its football program. Lincoln Riley fixed some problems last off-season, but he simultaneously regressed in other areas.
Watching LR’s all-important moves this off-season in the Portal, as a mediocre prep recruiter, and how he deals with his staff will be entertaining to say the least, but hopefully not disappointing.
I would have to think Jen has the smarts and experience to understand what is going on with LR’s inability to run USC football. The question is does she have the autonomy to make any moves/demands other than simply report to Folt and get her responses? In that regard, because of the financial aspects surrounding the football program, does Folt have to confir with the BODs in addition?
In the days of PC and even before, Steven Sample gave MG the power to make changes/demands. But the financial picture was very different then?
Jam — Good point about how much authority Jen Cohen really has at this Presidential in-limbo stage USC finds itself in?
Do the BOTs care enough about football to immediately authorize Jen’s desired moves, assuming she has any? If not, we’ll be treading water at least until 2026.
I think you hit it on the head. The coaches have been bad but……who picked the coaches…..and who takes years to decide someone can’t coach and has contracts and extensions signed for millions.
Hopefully, Jen is the start of a new direction.
The most important priority for LR in the process of rebuilding this football program right now is what he & his staff accomplishes on NSD. It’s results has to be all positive and beyond expectations. No more disappointing results. No more spins to cover up on what should have been. Everything involved in a football program has to show from now on, improvement. LR is so close to losing the USC fanbase if he hasn’t lost a portion already, he can’t fail anymore. And that begins & ends with the right players, or his program is nothing! His coaches have… Read more »
Sometimes I wonder if Riley even looks back at what won National Championships for USC in 1962, 1972,1974, 1978, and 2004-5. Solid defense, great OL and DL, running the football, and capable QB play won. Matt Leinart was the exception as he was great. Pass-happy Riley has it backwards in my opinion. The pieces are there as Lynn has improved the defense and SC is recruiting OL and DL. Joyner comes back at running back and running the ball should be the focus, not passing. I look forward to next season and hope the results improve. At this point in… Read more »
I’m not sure Riley even looks at the National Champions from the last 10-20 years. The formula is all basically the same in player recruiting ( trench positions especially), offense approach ( run vs pass ) and defensive prowess, not necessarily the top statistically. All those components required a toughness attitude. Reilly cut his teeth from the Mike Leach / Hal Mumme style which has never won anything but perhaps offensive position individual awards. It would be quite a big transformation for Riley to change now.
That is the problem.
Leach and Riley never won anything.
And a stupid AD gave him a high paying 10 year contract.
A 4 year contract would have been smarter.
The last decent AD was Mike Garrett.
Cohen seems better but too late to change the poor decisions.
Look at the stats. From 2015 until 2021 at Oklahoma he ran the ball 55% of the time and threw it 45% of the time. I don’t think that it would be a big change. All he has to do is go back to what he did for 7 years at Oklahoma.
No disrespect intended, but what does it matter what LR did at OU anymore? That’s absolutely ancient history in the world of CFB, and LR was much protected by the machine built by Bob Stoops. Even so, when LR ditched OU for USC, many OU fans warned us that LR would be bringing his own set of deficiencies, which proved to be 100% accurate. And the USC job is clearly different from what was required to be successful in Norman, Okla at the time LR was their coach. LR needs to figure out what to do going forward at USC,… Read more »
When you look at OU tape, he certainly ran the ball with those power / power counters, stretch, etc then play action off the run game. Seems he’s regressed to a chuck and duck concept with a sprinkle of runs at predictable times. You hear some fans come running with flailing arms that he does run the ball. Ya, but it’s when he does. It’s not like OU whereas the run established the game. Now it’s here or there and recently not on the goal line. Our Oline can run block but not so well pass block. I dont know… Read more »
No the OU fans wouldn’t want him back. I thought subsequent to the soft Helton years, we needed to return to hard nose football and that usually comes with a defensive oriented head coach.
Venables is a total defensive guy and he’s only 22-16 (12-14) as HC of the Sooners. We’re stuck with LR who is 25-14 (17-10), but only 14-11 (9-9) the last two seasons. Neither fan base is jumping up and down about the direction of each program, but at least Venables just hired new OC Ben Arbuckle from WSU to see if he can get a course correct in the works. It’ll be interesting to see what LR does with his staff, if anything. Hopefully, he doesn’t lose any coaches who are doing a good job. In the meantime, with early… Read more »
I still believe that LR will right the ship. As we all know, the landscape of college football has completely changed. I believe a good move by USC would be to approach Pete Carroll to be the GM similar to Stanford installing Andrew Luck as their GM. ✌️
The talent is there, coaching has been subpar, that equals to loss of recruits and confidence. If Riley brings in a play caller and only focuses on being a HC, commits to the run to setup the pass ( Woody Marks could have been a Heisman candidate) then things could turn quickly, the stubbornness to win with traditional football is killing the team,
Woody was pretty good thats for sure, but when you have a guy like Jeanty at RB he would not have had a chance at Heisman. Sounds like Hunter from Colorado will win it.
I don’t think I have ever seen so many players flipping as we have had this last week or so. Money must be flowing. It seems TAMU took a page from Jimbo’s playbook, spend it all.
It is clear to me that SC needs to be at least 9-3 or 8-4 next season and be contending for the Big 10 championship game or Riley could be gone. The NIL dollars will not tolerate another sub-par season.
I think USC will keep Riley until at least the end of 2026, unless the wheels completely fall off and nothing gets better. Right now with signing day approaching things look somewhat promising. Already a lot of guys available in the portal, but not many with 4⭐’s.
Why the heck would any NFL team want to pay massive money to an overpaid bust USC HC/QB Whisperer who lost control of Caleb Williams in 2023 (remember Hero Ball?) and watched Miller Moss regress under his tutelage in 2024. Jayden Maiava’s two consecutive 100-yd pick sixes are now an unfortunate part of CFB lore.
Seems like pure unadulterated craziness to think any NFL owner/GM combo would want to give LR a shot after his USC faceplant.
If someone else hadn’t posted it Miller Moss will hit the portal. Coaching by scapegoat doesn’t look good on a resume’ also expect receivers to follow. Loyalty ain’t spit to Lunkhead Riley.
Will the Trojans ever regain dominance? Like most of us, hearing that Lincoln Riley was coming to USC was great news, especially after enduring the Helton years with mediocrity a norm. Although LR had never won a natty, and his appearances in the playoffs were very lopsided, it sure beat what we had. There was a little nagging worry that he was the qb whisperer, defense was not exactly a focus, but his program looked put together. In hindsight, stoops left him in turnkey shape. I always thought Urban Meyer will all his worts, some earned, some blown way out… Read more »
Well….assuming this class comes in as expected……I’am starting to think we will have a respectable team in another year or two. Several very nice recruits. Combining last year and this…..We have a set of nice DE’s from last year, Two OL tackles this year, A QB, a few DL heavies, DB’s, nice class of LB’s. Add a few portals and we will have enough talent to scare the above average teams, probably not the elite. Maybe not capable of winning a NC but possibly threatening to make the playoffs. That is with a head coach that has his head screwed… Read more »
I think a lot of us are wondering if we will ever personally see USC at truly elite, national championship status again. I used to always think there would be an inevitable return by USC to those days.
I’m not quite so certain us older Trojans will see that now, in part because USC is totally bootstrapped to LR, who has never shown he is likely to actually win a national championship for USC, from what I have seen at least.
Reality is that with few exceptions, teams finish the year in the rankings pretty close to their recruiting class ranking rolling average of a couple years lag. If LR wants to win NCs, then he needs to start recruiting #1 classes immediately. If he’s so arrogant to think he can consistently produce Top 10 teams from non-Top 10 recruiting classes, there’s really no hope for him. He will never produce a NC with recruiting efforts outside the Top 10. Also, this is my last time saying it, we are stuck with LR for a few more years UNLESS there is… Read more »
There’s no reason to be silent about LR’s numerous screw-ups just because we’re stuck with him. If USC fans had better, more promising things to say about the guy, the TDB would be plastered daily with compliments about his excellence. I 100% doubt whatever LR did qualifies as a “for cause” reason to dump him. As we all know, USC made a horrible move by bringing in massively over-rated LR who was able to name his price with USC on its post-Helton knees. Now we have to gut it out until LR somehow turns into a much better coach at… Read more »
And gut it out and watch the calendar pages turn is exactly what we will have to do. I’m not holding my breath waiting for LR’s personal “black Monday” to happen any time soon.
The idea of ending the series was first floated by Riley last August at Big Ten media day, as the coach considered the future of nonconference scheduling in the 12-team College Football Playoff era. Still, Davis didn’t see the logic in his reasoning.
Neither Bohn nor Folt had the authority to ink the LR contract and stroke that check. They HAD to take it to the BOT. Beyond a certain pre-set authority, only the executive committee of the BOT possess that power of the pen. With regard to capitol expenditures, USC operates much like an insurance company. Unfortunately, USC’s staggering ten year contract resembled the same stupid ass mistakes which brought down mighty AIG. The limited public documents available confirm USC is operating on a deficit this year.
I don’t think Lincoln Riley is going anywhere for at least two years. We spent our load thinking that we had brought in the next Urban Meyer, and it turns out that he was just a slightly more competent player’s coach a la Helton. I said it last week — that I saw everything I needed to see to understand why we are where we are at this point under LR in that locker-room celebration after we beat UCLA (a sub-.500 failure that recruits well below us, and we needed all the best bounces to beat them). Look, it is… Read more »
I remember now that I really pushed hard for Urban Meyer. I even wrote a long email to my fraternity brother (Caruso) about how Meyer would be the guy to turn the program around. I don’t know if he read it or not.
Folt and the rest of the wokesters on the faculty and B o T would never allow it. But Folt is leaving….
I think LR needs to talk to Pete Carroll about preparing a team mentally. This team plays hard. I don’t think that they need to be prepared to play touch. They may need more physical players. But championship teams have a mentality about them. Mentally, they expect to win those close games. I could be wrong but this team doesn’t seem to have the championship mentality. It’s a mental thing. This team played hard all year. Yet they found a way to lose games all year long in the 4th quarter. Pete Carroll was good at preparing a team mentally… Read more »
100%, and not just a talk about mental preparedness, but a long list of topics.
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
I don’t think Riley has humbled himself enough to acknowledge that he has to change his entire approach to building the program as a B1G member.
Besides, would PC even be bothered to work with a young arrogant man like Riley?
PC would want serious responsibility—maybe the proposed executive position of football GM would interest him.
Great story from Ed O about meeting Pete C
“I’m comin’ to Anaheim Stadium”
Great story … believe Pete said they would compete against each other who could see the most kids in 1 day every day
Ed O and Pete were literally as good of a recruiting tag team as there has ever been in college football history.
They were a sight to behold and it showed on the field for an amazing 34-straight victories before that tough loss to Mack Brown’s Longhorns.
What a run USC was on. Little did we know what the post-Pete Carroll years would bring.
Yep, that duo brought in top 3 classes every year once they hooked up and got it rolling.
The winter of life approaches. Time waits for no Trojan. Allen Wallace correctly pointed out we are “bootstrapped” to LR. This colossal, illusory 10 year contract put Trojan nation’s
feet in concrete, and after year one, LR pushed us off the pier. LR will metaphorically ride Traveler until the horse drops in year ten. Neither Dallas nor Chicago will come to our aid. Meanwhile the clock runs, and we are left with fading memories of yesteryear. Oh the old joy of simply being “competitive” once again before the snow flies and the lake freezes. Fight On!
Being bootstrapped to a “bust” head coach is no way to go through life.
USC is literally a prisoner of its own mismanagement of its football program. Lincoln Riley fixed some problems last off-season, but he simultaneously regressed in other areas.
Watching LR’s all-important moves this off-season in the Portal, as a mediocre prep recruiter, and how he deals with his staff will be entertaining to say the least, but hopefully not disappointing.
Only hope is to spend $$$$ like Texas did to save Suckisian
You would actually rather have Lincoln Riley over Sark at this stage? 😂 😂
Sark is 10X the recruiter LR has ever been and now he’s also a much better coach as well, regardless of NIL.
LR’s problem now is many players will take an NIL pay cut to play for winning coaches at much higher-ranked, more successful programs.
I would have to think Jen has the smarts and experience to understand what is going on with LR’s inability to run USC football. The question is does she have the autonomy to make any moves/demands other than simply report to Folt and get her responses? In that regard, because of the financial aspects surrounding the football program, does Folt have to confir with the BODs in addition?
In the days of PC and even before, Steven Sample gave MG the power to make changes/demands. But the financial picture was very different then?
Jam — Good point about how much authority Jen Cohen really has at this Presidential in-limbo stage USC finds itself in?
Do the BOTs care enough about football to immediately authorize Jen’s desired moves, assuming she has any? If not, we’ll be treading water at least until 2026.
I think you hit it on the head. The coaches have been bad but……who picked the coaches…..and who takes years to decide someone can’t coach and has contracts and extensions signed for millions.
Hopefully, Jen is the start of a new direction.
Competitive? The “trained eye” would notice that were just a half dozen plays away from being undefeated.
The most important priority for LR in the process of rebuilding this football program right now is what he & his staff accomplishes on NSD. It’s results has to be all positive and beyond expectations. No more disappointing results. No more spins to cover up on what should have been. Everything involved in a football program has to show from now on, improvement. LR is so close to losing the USC fanbase if he hasn’t lost a portion already, he can’t fail anymore. And that begins & ends with the right players, or his program is nothing! His coaches have… Read more »
Sometimes I wonder if Riley even looks back at what won National Championships for USC in 1962, 1972,1974, 1978, and 2004-5. Solid defense, great OL and DL, running the football, and capable QB play won. Matt Leinart was the exception as he was great. Pass-happy Riley has it backwards in my opinion. The pieces are there as Lynn has improved the defense and SC is recruiting OL and DL. Joyner comes back at running back and running the ball should be the focus, not passing. I look forward to next season and hope the results improve. At this point in… Read more »
I’m not sure Riley even looks at the National Champions from the last 10-20 years. The formula is all basically the same in player recruiting ( trench positions especially), offense approach ( run vs pass ) and defensive prowess, not necessarily the top statistically. All those components required a toughness attitude. Reilly cut his teeth from the Mike Leach / Hal Mumme style which has never won anything but perhaps offensive position individual awards. It would be quite a big transformation for Riley to change now.
That is the problem.
Leach and Riley never won anything.
And a stupid AD gave him a high paying 10 year contract.
A 4 year contract would have been smarter.
The last decent AD was Mike Garrett.
Cohen seems better but too late to change the poor decisions.
Look at the stats. From 2015 until 2021 at Oklahoma he ran the ball 55% of the time and threw it 45% of the time. I don’t think that it would be a big change. All he has to do is go back to what he did for 7 years at Oklahoma.
No disrespect intended, but what does it matter what LR did at OU anymore? That’s absolutely ancient history in the world of CFB, and LR was much protected by the machine built by Bob Stoops. Even so, when LR ditched OU for USC, many OU fans warned us that LR would be bringing his own set of deficiencies, which proved to be 100% accurate. And the USC job is clearly different from what was required to be successful in Norman, Okla at the time LR was their coach. LR needs to figure out what to do going forward at USC,… Read more »
When you look at OU tape, he certainly ran the ball with those power / power counters, stretch, etc then play action off the run game. Seems he’s regressed to a chuck and duck concept with a sprinkle of runs at predictable times. You hear some fans come running with flailing arms that he does run the ball. Ya, but it’s when he does. It’s not like OU whereas the run established the game. Now it’s here or there and recently not on the goal line. Our Oline can run block but not so well pass block. I dont know… Read more »
Both USC and OU suck now (IMHO). Would you rather have Brent Venables or Lincoln Riley as your coach?
Would most OU fans want LR back, even if they could have him? I sincerely doubt that.
No the OU fans wouldn’t want him back. I thought subsequent to the soft Helton years, we needed to return to hard nose football and that usually comes with a defensive oriented head coach.
Venables is a total defensive guy and he’s only 22-16 (12-14) as HC of the Sooners. We’re stuck with LR who is 25-14 (17-10), but only 14-11 (9-9) the last two seasons. Neither fan base is jumping up and down about the direction of each program, but at least Venables just hired new OC Ben Arbuckle from WSU to see if he can get a course correct in the works. It’ll be interesting to see what LR does with his staff, if anything. Hopefully, he doesn’t lose any coaches who are doing a good job. In the meantime, with early… Read more »
Talalele is looking to leave. Let us hope it is not a flood. He was not a starter.
That is one that makes no sense. He has a shot next season. I cannot understand these young guys. Is it $$ or what.
No idea……it’s a messed up time.
Ehhh weight and speed problem
plus that lazy effort on FG block vs Maryland
Bear was lazy and they tossed him … think same thing here
I still believe that LR will right the ship. As we all know, the landscape of college football has completely changed. I believe a good move by USC would be to approach Pete Carroll to be the GM similar to Stanford installing Andrew Luck as their GM. ✌️
A great opportunity to for PC to mentor Riley
The talent is there, coaching has been subpar, that equals to loss of recruits and confidence. If Riley brings in a play caller and only focuses on being a HC, commits to the run to setup the pass ( Woody Marks could have been a Heisman candidate) then things could turn quickly, the stubbornness to win with traditional football is killing the team,
Woody was pretty good thats for sure, but when you have a guy like Jeanty at RB he would not have had a chance at Heisman. Sounds like Hunter from Colorado will win it.
I don’t think I have ever seen so many players flipping as we have had this last week or so. Money must be flowing. It seems TAMU took a page from Jimbo’s playbook, spend it all.
It is clear to me that SC needs to be at least 9-3 or 8-4 next season and be contending for the Big 10 championship game or Riley could be gone. The NIL dollars will not tolerate another sub-par season.
I think USC will keep Riley until at least the end of 2026, unless the wheels completely fall off and nothing gets better. Right now with signing day approaching things look somewhat promising. Already a lot of guys available in the portal, but not many with 4⭐’s.
He could go to the NFL if Chicago or Dallas open up the wallets to pay him more than he’s making at SC.
Why the heck would any NFL team want to pay massive money to an overpaid bust USC HC/QB Whisperer who lost control of Caleb Williams in 2023 (remember Hero Ball?) and watched Miller Moss regress under his tutelage in 2024. Jayden Maiava’s two consecutive 100-yd pick sixes are now an unfortunate part of CFB lore.
Seems like pure unadulterated craziness to think any NFL owner/GM combo would want to give LR a shot after his USC faceplant.
And turn a multi-billion $$$$ “business” over to this guy, who is in the process of devaluing his current multi-million $$ “business”?
Jerry Jones seems to have disintegrated into a senile old Cowboy cheerleader.
Maybe he’ll conclude that LR will do what he says and stroke his ego in the process. One can still hope in the face of reality.
HA, good point, he’d be the only one crazy enough to swing at that pitch.
9-3 may start being a good record in college football now … competition has gotten fierce
If someone else hadn’t posted it Miller Moss will hit the portal. Coaching by scapegoat doesn’t look good on a resume’ also expect receivers to follow. Loyalty ain’t spit to Lunkhead Riley.
Wow, if they lose the receivers Riley will HAVE to run the ball.
There could be a bright side.
Will the Trojans ever regain dominance? Like most of us, hearing that Lincoln Riley was coming to USC was great news, especially after enduring the Helton years with mediocrity a norm. Although LR had never won a natty, and his appearances in the playoffs were very lopsided, it sure beat what we had. There was a little nagging worry that he was the qb whisperer, defense was not exactly a focus, but his program looked put together. In hindsight, stoops left him in turnkey shape. I always thought Urban Meyer will all his worts, some earned, some blown way out… Read more »
Well….assuming this class comes in as expected……I’am starting to think we will have a respectable team in another year or two. Several very nice recruits. Combining last year and this…..We have a set of nice DE’s from last year, Two OL tackles this year, A QB, a few DL heavies, DB’s, nice class of LB’s. Add a few portals and we will have enough talent to scare the above average teams, probably not the elite. Maybe not capable of winning a NC but possibly threatening to make the playoffs. That is with a head coach that has his head screwed… Read more »
I hope you’re wrong about the powers that be (Board of Trustees?) accepting the occasional 9 & 3 record as the height of success for SC football.
I also hope I am wrong.
Shameful.
Funny the post asks this question. I was wondering at my stage in life if I will ever see those PC coached SC teams again?
I think a lot of us are wondering if we will ever personally see USC at truly elite, national championship status again. I used to always think there would be an inevitable return by USC to those days.
I’m not quite so certain us older Trojans will see that now, in part because USC is totally bootstrapped to LR, who has never shown he is likely to actually win a national championship for USC, from what I have seen at least.
247Sports has dropped USC’s 2025 20-commitment class to #16.
Rivals now has the Trojans at #17.
With some schools spending like they are right now, the standings are quite fluid until Friday.
Reality is that with few exceptions, teams finish the year in the rankings pretty close to their recruiting class ranking rolling average of a couple years lag. If LR wants to win NCs, then he needs to start recruiting #1 classes immediately. If he’s so arrogant to think he can consistently produce Top 10 teams from non-Top 10 recruiting classes, there’s really no hope for him. He will never produce a NC with recruiting efforts outside the Top 10. Also, this is my last time saying it, we are stuck with LR for a few more years UNLESS there is… Read more »
There’s no reason to be silent about LR’s numerous screw-ups just because we’re stuck with him. If USC fans had better, more promising things to say about the guy, the TDB would be plastered daily with compliments about his excellence. I 100% doubt whatever LR did qualifies as a “for cause” reason to dump him. As we all know, USC made a horrible move by bringing in massively over-rated LR who was able to name his price with USC on its post-Helton knees. Now we have to gut it out until LR somehow turns into a much better coach at… Read more »
And gut it out and watch the calendar pages turn is exactly what we will have to do. I’m not holding my breath waiting for LR’s personal “black Monday” to happen any time soon.