Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans were so close, yet so far from pulling off what felt like the improbable. USC needed a win in Bloomington over Indiana and it came up short. With it, the criticisms return. Riley had all the pressure on him to get to the College Football Playoff this year, and a bad loss to Wisconsin and losses to Oregon and now Indiana essentially put them in a bind. The Trojans needed to win out to have a shot and with that out of the picture, Riley should start worrying about his future (again) in Los Angeles.Â
Riley won’t be easy to replace, but at some point USC has to realize maybe they reached their ceiling with Riley. No recruiting class rankings, transfer portal additions, or even conference realignment is going to change the course for the Trojans or Riley. Here’s why the seat is scorching hot and why his future could be in question.Â
The same ol’ problems are occurring for the Trojans
It’s been the same routine for USC since they left the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten. USC can’t win the games that matter and it’s costing them promising seasons. Before this season, USC had just two ranked conference wins since joining the Big Ten in 2024—– No. 15 Michigan and No. 21 Iowa, both last season. This year, their resumé is clinging to the win over Ohio State a few weeks back. These are the games Riley was brought in to win and he can’t. USC has been disappointing since Riley arrived.Â
Oregon has been dominant since it joined the Big Ten and now UCLA has surpassed them this season too. At the end of the day, Riley needs to win the big games and he can’t. This is more than just getting to the CFP and the Big Ten championship game. This is about showing the administration he’s the best coach for this program. The loss to Indiana pretty much proves to them it might be time to make a change.Â
Another year of missing the College Football Playoff
This is the only season the Trojans have been in the College Football Playoff conversation this late in the season. This is also the one game that would have boosted their resume enough to make them one of the favorites on the bubble. At this point, Riley hasn’t been to the CFP since he had Jalen Hurts at Oklahoma back in 2019. This is the best chance he had and he came up short once again.Â
Next season when the CFP expands to a 24-team playoff, it won’t matter who the coach is because teams will get rewarded with bad seasons. Maybe that’s why the USC administration may not feel compelled to make a coaching change. If he can’t make it with a 24-team playoff, he probably won’t be the coach much longer. But this was his chance to restore faith with the fan base and he once again proved he’s not the right person to take USC to national success.
USC has been one of the worst of the expansion teams in the Big Ten
The only other team that moved to the Big Ten with the last conference expansion has been Washington. And if you want to be technical, they’ve had more CFP appearances than Riley has had since he took over USC. That in itself should be enough for the administration to realize they’ve seen the best they’re going to get from Riley. Be that as it may, Oregon and UCLA have both seen more success than USC. Though UCLA’s success came this year, that doesn’t take away from them being the more respectable team in LA right now.Â
With conference championships going away next year, being dominant in conference play in the future won’t carry the same weight it used to. Riley had his chance to prove he was good enough to elevate this program and instead it made marginal moves to position itself in the national conversation like they should.
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