UCLA Football: Lincoln Riley Berates His Own Coaching Against Bruins
Second-year USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley has had a rough go of it of late. He's gone 7-7 in his last 14 contests with the club, extending back to a disappointing record at the tail end of the 2022 season.
He may have suffered one of his weirdest losses this weekend, as the 38-20 final tally of Saturday's rivalry week matchup against the UCLA Bruins doesn't even totally reflect just how complete a defensive annihilation the Blue and Gold had over the favored Trojans. The defeat dropped USC to a 7-5 record on the year, and boosted the Bruins to 7-4.
The funny thing about all this is, Riley seems to be aware just how bad the loss really was, writes Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times. He took full ownership for the defeat, to his credit.
“You may lose a close one here and there where it’s just right there one play here and there,” Riley said, “but to not give yourself a chance like today, it’s unacceptable. So I gotta be better. There’s no way to look at this and say I did any kind of a good job and got the result that we did in the second half of the season. So I gotta be better in every single way possible.”
Given that he inked a $110 million deal to join the Trojans just two years ago, I don't think his job's in jeopardy just yet. But it's a bummer he didn't do more with one-of-a-kind QB Caleb Williams, the most recent Heisman Trophy recipient, at his disposal.
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