Lincoln Riley says he keeps receipts in declaration made for freezing cold takes

Lincoln Riley faces a unique kind of pressure this season at USC. It will be his fourth season leading the Trojans and his second removed from having Caleb Williams as his starting quarterback. Every season under Riley the Trojans have been worse. While the defense did improve with D'Anton Lynn calling the shots, anything was an upgrade over the two previous years under Alex Grinch's watch.

So when Riley appeared on The Hard Count with On3's J.D. PicKell, he admitted to keeping receipts for everyone who criticized his once-porous defense. I understand what PicKell is trying to do here in speaking with Riley. It is the offseason, college football is fun and you want to keep it mostly positive. However, Riley may have set himself up for failure by potentially putting his foot in his mouth with this.

Riley's point about keeping receipts is fair, but it will be fuel to the fire for those who want him gone.

"Well, of course, we keep receipts. We're competitors, right? That's how we're all wired. The politically correct thing is to say no, but we all do. And that's part of it."

Here is the clip about Riley saying he kept receipts when it came to USC's defense being criticized.

What kind of year should we expect to see out of the Trojans in their second season in the Big Ten?

Lincoln Riley admitted to keeping receipts regarding USC criticism

While I may be one of the biggest Lincoln Riley haters out there, I do not really have much issue with the response he had to PicKell's question. It actually made Riley come across more human, and honestly, more relatable. This is a guy who had tremendous success previously at Oklahoma. Making the College Football Playoff was a regular thing. I have high standards for the guy as a head coach.

Where he regularly loses me is he does not seem to be a man who is about honest confrontation. It came across like he left Oklahoma to run away from the Sooners joining the SEC. He left for a much easier Pac-12. Well, that league largely dissolved, due in part to USC's doing, so to the Big Ten they went! My whole point is he needs to evolve from an Air Raid wunderkind and become a CEO-type.

The good news is I think he is starting to show signs of doing just that. He seems to have empowered Lynn since he came aboard over from rival UCLA. Riley is always going to favor the offensive side of the ball. I really wanted Miller Moss to work in his system. For a minute, it kind of did, but he later pivoted to Jayden Maiava. USC needs to be way more buttoned-up when playing games on the road.

To tie a bow on this, I would like nothing more than to see USC win eight or nine games next year and be a factor in the middle of the 18-team Big Ten. The expanded league has a soft belly that needs to be toned. Well-run teams like Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State are taking advantage of ones like USC not having it together. College football will be better once USC returns to glory in some capacity.

I will say if USC continues to flounder under Riley in 2025, Jennifer Cohen could move on from him.