USC Football: Columnist Shreds Lincoln Riley After 2nd Consecutive Defeat

It's been a rough few weeks for the Trojans.

Against Utah this past weekend, head coach Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans were supposed to bounce back. After a bad loss to Notre Dame a week ago, the team hoped to rebound, but the opposite happened. The Trojans fell once again to the Utes.

Long-time columnist Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times slammed the Trojans after another loss, but he mainly focused it on head coach Lincoln Riley.

“Yet on a brutal Saturday night, their $10-million-a-year coach’s promise of a championship culture once again crumpled like a cheap suit. Riley failed the moment. He failed the Trojans. He failed the Coliseum. He is failing this season.”

Per Bill Plaschke of The LA Times

Since Riley has taken over at USC, the Trojans are 2-5 against ranked opponents. That isn’t good. His teams have underperformed in both seasons, with the defense being the leading cause for it. But there hasn’t been a real effort to change that fact.

“The rollicking Coliseum crowd was not supposed to alter its cheers to boos, then jeers, then stunned silence. The Trojans were supposed to win games like this, a Pac-12 home showdown with the defending conference champs, a grudge match against a team that beat them twice last season, a monumental moment. This is why they hired Lincoln Riley, right?”



Per Bill Plaschke of The LA Times

Yes, they added in some transfers this past offseason, but his roster construction has been an issue for a while now. It plagued him during his time at Oklahoma, and it is rearing its ugly head again with the Trojans.

“Finally, Riley is also flunking the important realm of public perception. Like every football coach, he controls the team’s media access, so it falls on him that for the first time in memory Saturday, no USC players were made available for postgame interviews.”



Per Bill Plaschke of The LA Times

It's been an ugly couple of weeks for USC, and things will only get tougher as the year goes on. USC still has to play both Oregon and Washington, so they will need to figure things out quickly.

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