Paul Finebaum Floats Deion Sanders As Potential Lincoln Riley Replacement at USC

Riley is entering his third season in Los Angeles.

Jul 10, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders speaks to the media during the Big 12 Media Days at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports / Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports

USC coach Lincoln Riley is entering his third season with the program this fall, but one media member is already floating names for Riley's replacement with the program.

ESPN's Paul Finebaum said that Colorado's Deion Sanders would make perfect sense for USC if the school elected to move on from Riley after another subpar season.

"You have to win in L.A., otherwise, you lose badly, and I think [Riley's] losing badly" Finebaum said on ESPN's First Take on Monday morning. "...I believe the answer after this season is Deion Sanders. He's going to be tired of Colorado because quite frankly, it's not prime time. He's done well, as well as he can, with his son and Travis Hunter and all the Stephen A. and Shannon Sharpe appearances. But that's gonna dry up this year because they're not going to be that great. When you put 'Prime' in Tinseltown, I think you have one of the great combinations in history. ...Deion Sanders as the coach at Southern Cal is the answer to the problems. Lincoln Riley is a good coach. He's got a great resume. Deion Sanders just exudes exactly what that community is all about. He takes the recruiting there which Lincoln had and then lost, but I think he sustains it, especially now."

.@finebaum says Deion Sanders would be the perfect replacement for Lincoln Riley at USC 👀 pic.twitter.com/9HbqEYDG4u

— First Take (@FirstTake) July 22, 2024

The fall of Riley's tenure at USC is likely a bit premature. After all, Riley and his staff oversaw an 11-3 season with Heisman winner Caleb Williams just two seasons ago in his first year with the program. Last year's 8-5 season can be chalked up (in large part) to extremely poor defensive execution. Riley has made a change at defensive coordinator, bringing over D'Anton Lynn from UCLA to replace much-maligned Alex Grinch. The Trojans should be much better on that side of the ball this season, which in turn should help them offensively as they enter the Big Ten for the first time.

But if USC ever wanted to make a change at head coach and pay Riley an enormous buyout just three seasons into his tenure, Sanders would surely be an interesting fit.