Lincoln Riley Hints at Ending Historic Notre Dame-USC Rivalry

The USC head coach hasn't shied away from shying away historically

Oct 14, 2023; South Bend, Indiana, USA; USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley and Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman chat before the game at Notre Dame Stadium. / Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

USC head football coach Lincoln Riley hasn't been one to shy away from shying away in his coaching career.

While at Oklahoma the young head coach took the Sooners on the road and beat Ohio State in September of his first season. In the four years after that game the biggest out of conference foes Oklahoma played were UCLA, Houston, and a nothing-burger of a Nebraska program that hasn't been relevant since Donald Trump was only a businessman and reality TV star.

Towards the end of the 2021 season rumors started to fly involving Lincoln Riley leaving Oklahoma for the vacant head coach position at LSU.

We all know how that ended up - with Riley instead taking the USC job while Brian Kelly skipped merrily away from Notre Dame to take over the LSU football program.

Since then, the two have been linked as Riley went as far as contacting both he and Kelly's mutual agent, Trace Armstrong, in an effort to have the 2024 season opening between LSU and USC scrapped.

This off-season he certainly didn't oppose canceling a home-and-home with Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss starting in 2025.

Are you sensing a theme yet?

Lincoln Riley Using the Media to Fight (On) His Fights?

After the news broke that Riley had spent considerable effort trying to get USC out of its 2024 season opener against LSU, one of USC's media mouthpieces was quick to get the word out that the Notre Dame-USC rivalry essentially means nothing.

Colin Cowherd took it upon himself to carry the water for Lincoln Riley and declare that USC shouldn't just not play LSU in the season-opener but take another step and ditch Notre Dame from the regular season schedule.

Does Cowherd actually think that or is he simply repeating what the coach of the program he most enjoys desires?

Oct 14, 2023; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish defensive lineman Rylie Mills (99) gets a hold of the jersey of USC Trojans quarterback Caleb Williams (13) in the fourth quarter at Notre Dame Stadium. / Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Lincoln Riley Wants No Part of Notre Dame Going Forward

Riley was asked about if the Notre Dame-USC rivalry was safe for the future on Wednesday at Big Ten media day.

At very best Riley could be described as non-committal.

At worst it certainly seems like he's trying to end this relationship as soon as possible.

“I would love to. I know it means a lot to a lot of people. The purist in you, no doubt. Now if you get in a position where you got to make a decision on what's best for SC to help us win a national championship vs. keeping that, shoot, then you got to look at it.

“And listen, we're not the first example of that. Look all the way across the country. There has been a lot of other teams sacrifice rivalry games. And I'm not saying that's what's going to happen. But as we get into this Playoff structure, and if it changes or not, we’re in this new conference, we're going to learn something about this as we go and what the right and the best track is to winning a national championship, that's going to evolve.”

Making the excuse that essentially "everybody else is doing it" without even doing it yet certainly gives you a sense of where his head seems to be regarding it.

Riley also went on to reference Alabama as a team that makes its schedule based on winning championships, not on pleasing fans. Yes, that same Alabama that has scheduled Texas, Miami (Fl.), Michigan, and some program that refers to itself as USC, in recent years.

And yes, that same Alabama that goes to Camp Randall to play Wisconsin this year and has a home-and-home on the books with, you guessed it, Notre Dame.

USC football traditionally schedules as well as anyone

For as long as you can look back, USC has been a football program that has never been afraid of scheduling a big game.

USC football not only plays Notre Dame out of conference every year, but usually has another significant non-conference opponent as well.

Texas and Alabama are among those the Trojans have played in the last decade in addition to Notre Dame in that out-of-conference slate.

USC is one of two programs all-time (UCLA as well) that has never scheduled a game against an FBS opponent.

Playing a tough out-of-conference schedule gets you respect in college football like very few things do.

Would the masses have been crying for Florida State to make the College Football Playoff in 2023 had they played a bunch of cupcakes outside of the ACC? The masses were pulling for them in large part because they wanted to see a program that beat up two traditional SEC powers (LSU and Florida) in their out-of-conference slate.

The Good News Regarding Notre Dame-USC

There is good news regarding the future of this rivalry that carries more weight than anything.

Lincoln Riley doesn't have the power at USC to force a change like this to the Trojans football schedule.

If Riley had USC in a place where it was regularly knocking on the door of the College Football Playoff (he's 1/2 for being in contention) then it would be one thing.

USC beat up a soft schedule the first half of 2023 and was sent into a full-on nosedive after Notre Dame knocked them around the yard in mid-October. One could argue the Trojans are still reeling from that reality check, that came against a defense that had been gutted by Louisville just a week earlier.

Unless Lincoln Riley starts winning in a real big way and quickly at USC, he should be more focused on keeping his job than trying to rig the schedule to make his team appear more successful than it really is.

The saying used to be "If you're scared by a dog".

Perhaps the new saying should be "If you're scared hold Lincoln's hand".

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