USC coach Lincoln Rileys excuses are more tiresome than his losses
It’s always something with this guy.A sloppy showing against winless Rutgers was dismised as the perils of playing on the road.A loss to Oregon and its backup quarterback was shrugged off as falling short against a superb team.A comeback against a Washington team down to its fourth-string running back was hailed as some sort of galvanizing moment.The warning signs were there, the evidence was impossible to ignore and now all the B.S.has caught up with USC coach Lincoln Riley.His team isn’t going anywhere meaningful in 2026.In Year 5, with a gleaming new practice facility, a third defensive coordinator and all the resources any college football coach could possibly desire, his Trojans have gone splat again.When is this guy going to simply admit he’s simply not getting it done at an acceptable level given all the patience and investment lavished upon him?The end of USC’s season basically came Saturday, after the No.
16 Trojans’ latest letdown resulted in a 24-7 loss to Wisconsin that gave them a second defeat with four games to go.Go ahead and consider Camp Randall Stadium the place where USC’s season went to die.At 6-2 overall and 3-2 in the Big Ten, the Trojans are in seventh place in the conference standings.A team that cannot afford another loss and make the College Football Playoff now must run the table against a remaining schedule that includes three top-10 teams – Ohio State, Indiana and UCLA.There’s no spinning his way out of this mess, though Riley certainly tried.There were plenty of failures to weed through Saturday after USC scored the fewest points of any team RIley has led in his 10 seasons as a head coach.Four times, the Trojans crossed midfield and didn’t score.
They tried a 58-yard field goal … that predictably fell well short.They rushed for minus-17 yards after spending previous weeks talking about how much untapped potential remained in the run game.While he accepted some responsibility, saying he didn’t coach well enough ...