At sagging USC, Lincoln Riley should be on the hot

As the fabled combat track heats up and the legendary gesture wags anew, let’s get one factor straight about what was once the Los Angeles sports activities panorama’s shining monument.

USC soccer has turn into a mirage.

The greatness is gone. The new custom is mediocrity. The new heritage is irrelevance.

“Fight on” has turn into “Paddle on,” with each ensuing season an exasperating train in protecting that Trojan helmet afloat.

This is just not opinion. This is just not hyperbole. This is reality.

In the final 16 seasons USC has recorded double-digit victories 5 instances.

During that identical time span, Alabama has recorded double-digit victories 15 instances.

In the final 16 seasons, USC has had one main bowl victory.

During that identical span, Ohio State has 10 main bowl victories.

Since the departure of Pete Carroll after the 2009 season, the Trojan soccer program has been rocked by NCAA punishment, roiled by a litany of ill-fitting coaches, betrayed by a string of embarrassing losses, and typically kneecapped by its own hubris.

This was once the biggest dynasty in faculty soccer historical past. I do know, I used to be there, and hardly ever has one workforce energized and impressed this total metropolis like Uncle Pete’s champions.

But watching video from those days is like watching an alien soccer workforce on Mars. The present product, with all its failures and excuses, is nearly fully unrecognizable.

In the previous 16 years, the program has dissolved into the equal of a mediocre wannabe that no longer competes with the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, Georgia and Clemson.

USC has mainly turn into the different USC — a South Carolina-type program crammed with massive aspirations but average outcomes.

The Athletic lately ranked faculty soccer packages in phrases of worth. Despite enjoying in the nation’s leisure capital alongside the nation’s most respected skilled basketball and baseball groups, the Trojans ranked only eighth. They have been estimated as being price practically $1 billion much less than top-ranked Texas, a college that performs in a a lot smaller market with eight fewer national titles.

Which brings us to the doorstep of one other seemingly nondescript season, but one framed in a bold-faced query.

Lincoln Riley has to be higher, proper? He has to win double-digit video games for only the second time in his 4 seasons, proper? He has to lead the 2025 squad to a bowl sport that isn’t performed in San Diego or Las Vegas, proper?

Most of us suppose Riley is just not on a hot seat because of the untenable value of his buyout, reportedly in the neighborhood of $80 million.

That higher be flawed.

If USC needs to return to its former glory, Trojan directors should maintain Riley accountable for additional tarnishing that shine.

In a billion-dollar industry, with a $200-million soccer facility at the moment under construction, USC can not view its coach through a financial lens, only a soccer lens. They should insist that he win soccer video games at a fee larger than, say, the man he changed.

Through 40 video games, Riley is 26-14. Through 40 video games, Clay Helton was 28-12 as a head coach.

Helton was publicly torn from limb to limb, yet Riley will get a cross?

Riley is 7-6 without Caleb Williams. He is 3-9 against ranked opponents. He has misplaced nearly every massive sport and blown nearly every massive second.

If he doesn’t change the narrative this season, USC wants to change the coach.

The Trojans have stabilized their entrance workplace with sharp athletic director Jen Cohen and extremely regarded common supervisor Chad Bowden. They’ve made large financial investments in infrastructure and recruiting.

Now it’s on Riley. And he wants to get it carried out now.

If Texas A&M can pony up $77.5 million to buy out Jimbo Fisher, USC can discover the money to exchange Riley. The value is unimaginable, but the price of falling additional behind in an evolving sport where at least a dozen packages have already left them in the mud is even larger.

“I give a lot of credit to our administration … because it’s very apparent that USC is extremely serious about making this football program and returning it back to being one of the greats in college football,” Riley mentioned to reporters Thursday at Big Ten media day in Las Vegas.

He’s proper. Everything is there for him to succeed.

Take the 2025 schedule. It’s the lightest in years. The Trojans don’t play Ohio State. They don’t play Penn State. They don’t play Indiana. They play Michigan at the Coliseum.

Their only robust nonconference sport is at Notre Dame. Their only severe hurdle on the street is at Oregon.

USC should maintain Riley to a normal of 10 wins, which should make the Trojans aggressive for one of the 12 playoff spots.

Certainly, that’s a lot of mandated wins. But at some level, the Trojan administration has to begin demanding that they turn into the Trojans again, and that time is now.

They definitely can not give Riley a grace period because he has the nation’s high recruiting class due to arrive in 2026. Riley has been right here 4 years, the expertise should be right here by now, and he should not be allowed to maintain the program hostage until his best class reveals up.

USC coach Lincoln Riley walks on the sideline during a win against Louisiana State on Sept. 1.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

You need to decide Riley by impactful gamers? Judge him by this yr’s quarterback, Jayden Maiava. He is Riley’s personal project, having been anointed the starter without offseason competitors from the portal.

Maiava was both uncooked and sensible final yr after changing Miller Moss, going 3-1 as a starter capped by a 17-point comeback in a Las Vegas Bowl victory over Texas A&M. He accomplished much less than 60% of his passes in three of the 4 begins, and threw six interceptions to offset his 11 landing passes, but his athleticism is spectacular and his arm is superb.

It says right here the new child has a likelihood to be great. Riley can remind Trojan followers of his best asset if he can lead the new child to that greatness.

“His arm talent, the decisiveness in which he plays and how he sees things is really unique and has a chance to be really special,” Riley mentioned, later repeating, “He has a chance to be a really, really special player.”

And USC has a likelihood to have a actually particular season.

For sure. For actual.

For the second time in 17 years.