Lincoln Riley in deep trouble?

Lincoln Riley in deep trouble? originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

Lincoln Riley is up for a crucial season in his stint with the USC Trojans. As expected, he has proved he's an offensive savant, but it is time for the Head Coach to prove his mantle holistically.

During a segment on college football, Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo and Paul Finebaum discussed the teams on the hot seat. Russo named the Trojans as the most 'under-pressure' team going into next season, but primarily because of their head coach.

The ESPN analyst said, "I think Lincoln Riley at USC needs a good year. A good year is being competitive, being in the mix for the playoffs, and having some big wins. His defense has been bad. The quarterback left; he's got a new quarterback."

With college football taking the revenue generation route, the USC Trojans are competing with big players like MLB, NBA, and the NFL. Lincoln Riley and his staff not only need to be ultra competitive for the new age of college football, but also bring in massive stars to fill the seats in the stadium.

Russo elaborated this by saying, "It's Southern California. They got (Shohei) Ohtani there, they got Luka (Doncic) there. They want big stars. He has not done a great job these last two years — defensively, specifically."

Paul Finebaum, on the other hand, went off on Lincoln Riley. He thought Russo had understated how "terrible" Riley's Trojans have performed the last couple of years.
Finebaum struck hard, saying, "Last year and the year before were fraudulent. And if it wasn't for about a $80 or $90 million buyout, he should've already gone. But, he has another chance, according to Doggy (Russo)."

But On3's JD PicKell last month said that it has become popular to hate on Riley. He believes that it is a momentary thing where everyone is counting him out, when in fact, if someone watched the games, they were very different from what the record shows.

He pointed to the overtime Penn State game last season and the Notre Dame clash, where it was anyone's game for the most part. But those things get buried under the record, and according to PicKell, the narrative grows that USC performed averagely last season.

USC's record this year will decide which side of this argument wins, since it looks like posting another middle-of-the-pack record will land Riley in deep trouble.

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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 18, 2025, where it first appeared.