Paul Finebaum Goes Scorched Earth on USC's Lincoln Riley

Is the popular ESPN host right about Riley's future with the Trojans?

Oct 28, 2023; Berkeley, California, USA; USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley reacts after a penalty during the third quarter against the California Golden Bears at California Memorial Stadium. / Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

Entering conference championship weekend 2022 it appeared everything was right with USC football. In their first year under head coach Lincoln Riley, the Trojans were a win over Utah from heading to the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history and were a week away from seeing Caleb Williams win the Heisman Trophy.

It's funny how quickly things can change.

Williams would play through pain in that Pac 12 championship game but USC was unable to match Utah's physicality and were routed. Although Williams would win college football's biggest individual prize, USC would lose the Cotton Bowl a month later to Tulane as the promising season ended with consecutive losses.

2023 saw Riley start his second season 6-0 before Notre Dame brought them back to reality with a 48-20 drubbing in South Bend. USC would finish the year just 8-5 after being ranked as high as fifth nationally at one point.

Paul Finebaum Declares it Over for Lincoln Riley at USC

Paul Finebaum is as well-known of college football talker as there is nationally. Although his roots are in the Southeast, he's not afraid to share opinions on national matters pretaining to college football.

As a guest on WJOX in Birmingham's McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning Monday, Finebaum dropped a bomb in how he sees Riley's end coming sooner than later at USC.

“If you look at the reality, the number of players bailing on Lincoln Riley in Southern California is startling,” said Finebaum. “I always thought he was a really good coach. Especially on the offensive side. But I don’t think anyone today views him in that same realm. Quite frankly, I think he’ll be out of Southern California at the end of the season.

“It’s a matter of whether he crashes and burns or whether he decides he has got to seek elsewhere. But I don’t think there is any way he is going to be successful out there. I think that train has left the station.”

To borrow a quote from an old college football voice who called the West coast home: Whoa, Nellie.

Is it a Lincoln Riley Problem or a USC Problem?

It's easy to look historically and say that Riley has poor defenses. At Oklahoma his teams were built to outscore you but they'd find trouble at times with Baylor and Kansas State who could matchup with them up front.

In his first year at USC he was gifted one of the nation's best offensive lines and nearly rode that to the College Football Playoff. When that graduated you saw a 2023 team that made Caleb Williams improvice more and a run game be much more inconsistent.

Are the departures USC has dealt with and the recent de-commitments in recruiting a Riley problem or a USC problem though?

Although the head coach is the one who has to answer to it, if USC is behind in the NIL game like it appeared they were more each year behind Oregon in the old Pac 12 and now Big Ten, then that's much more an organizational problem than simply the head coach, although Riley has certainly shown flaws.

2,096 miles to the northeast of Southern California's campus you'll find the Golden Dome and Touchdown Jesus on Notre Dame's campus, but you won't find anyone feeling bad for its biggest rival.

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