High-profile head coach takes shot at rival program as historic rivalry game ends

The fallout of USC and Notre Dame discontinuing their historic rivalry series continues.

The classic rivalry showdown began in 1926 and has been played every year since 1946, except the Covid-shortened 2020 season, alternating between Los Angeles and South Bend, Indiana. But the schools couldn't reach an agreement to continue playing in 2026 or in the near future.

USC coach Lincoln Riley has faced significant heat from his own fan base over that outcome, which was announced last week. Trojan legend Keyshawn Johnson teed off on the coach over the matter.

"I don't know what the [bleep] is going on with our athletic department. We got people in there that are not Trojans, that don't know anything about being a Trojan, running our athletic department. We got a head coach that knows nothing about being a Trojan," Johnson said.

"Why don't we just not play football? How bout that? We're not gonna play Notre Dame again until possibly 2030, is what I'm understanding? That doesn't make any sense. I grew up on the Notre Dame-USC rivalry. And I'm not one to go in on my athletic department, nor am I one to go in on the USC football coach.

"But if I can remember correctly, I had Lincoln Riley talking about, well, I don't know if I want to play them in the future. You ain't gonna be here in the future! Especially if you keep missing the playoffs. You not gonna be here in the future, I promise you that."

This is ridiculous! Just say we scared. I’ll accept that at least it’s the truth. 🤦🏾‍♂️ #USC #Trojans #NotreDame pic.twitter.com/B11S2sqcEX
— Keyshawn Johnson (@keyshawn) December 22, 2025

Riley, meanwhile, pointed the blame squarely at Notre Dame while addressing the matter Monday in a press conference ahead of USC's appearance in the Alamo Bowl.

"The fact is very, very clear, and this can all be settled very quickly -- had Notre Dame lived up to their word and played us anytime, anywhere, we would be playing them the next two years and looking ahead after that and hopefully continuing the series. They did not follow through on it, thus we are not playing them the next couple years," Riley said.

Lincoln Riley’s full comment on the #USC-Notre Dame rivalry game ending:

“Had Notre Dame lived up to their word and played us anytime, anywhere we’d be playing them the next two years.” @ThePeristyle pic.twitter.com/bhSc94WfYI
— Chris Treviño (@ChrisNTrevino) December 29, 2025

Riley's reference was to comments Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman made in the spring, saying, “I want to play them every single year. You want my opinion? I want to play them every single year. When? I don’t care. I don’t care when we play them: Start of the season, middle of the season, end of the season. I don’t care. I want to play USC every year because I think it’s great for college football.”

The point of contention between USC and Notre Dame over the scheduling of the series was USC's concern about playing in November because of College Football Playoff implications, with the Fighting Irish an independent that makes its own schedule and the Trojans in the thick of Big Ten play late in the year.

The rivalry game is traditionally played one of the final two weeks of the regular season, in the years it's played in Los Angeles, and in mid-October when it's played in South Bend.

With the game due to return to Los Angeles next, USC officials were pushing for the teams to meet at the start of next season, in Week 0, instead.

The Los Angeles Times reported that USC was warming to the idea of extending the series temporarily as is until a Yahoo report that Notre Dame had a side deal with the CFP that it would be guaranteed a playoff berth if it finished inside the top 12 of the final rankings starting in 2026, at which point Trojans athletic director Jen Cohen reversed course and dug in on the offer to play in Week 0.

Notre Dame instead announced a deal to play BYU.

"It's pretty simple," Riley said. "We both worked for months to try to find a solution. Notre Dame was very vocal about the fact that they would play us anytime, anywhere, and obviously them not having a conference affiliation gives them an ability to be pretty flexible with their scheduling," Riley said.

"Jen Cohen, our AD, went back to Notre Dame roughly a couple weeks ago with a scenario and a proposal that would extend the series for the next two years, and we took Notre Dame at their word that they would play us anytime, anywhere. That proposal was rejected. Not only was it rejected -- 5 minutes after we got the call, it was announced that they had scheduled another opponent. Which I'll give them credit, that might be the fastest scheduling act in college football history. ...

"We're hopeful something can be worked out in the future -- that would be fantastic. We at 'SC would love for the game to continue, and we have no problem following through on our promises in the future."

Notre Dame leads the all-time series 53-38-5 (not subtracting a win USC officially vacated due to NCAA penalties) and has won the last three meetings.

The LA Times reported 2030 is the earliest the schools could potentially schedule each other again.