Column: Lincoln Riley's problems on defense aren't new

Poor defensive play in his team's biggest games is a trend that has followed Riley since his days at Oklahoma

When Lincoln Riley was hired at USC in November of 2021, he was asked about restoring the Trojans' rich football tradition.

"I just look at it like how can we not do it? How is it not going to work?” Riley answered.

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“I think it can happen quickly. ... In this day and age with the way college football works, you can turn over rosters in so many different ways. ... The combination of the staff we’re going to bring in, the players we’re going to bring in, the leadership that we have."

Year one under Riley ended on Monday with a crushing 46-45 Cotton Bowl defeat to No. 16 Tulane. After going 4-8 a year ago, ending the season at 11-3 is an obvious improvement, but it's impossible to ignore the Trojans' defensive struggles in the team's biggest games. USC's defense gave up over 1,000 yards of offense in two losses to Utah and then allowed Tulane to score 16 unanswered points to go along with 539 yards in the team's Cotton Bowl debacle.

Poor defensive play in his team's biggest games is a trend that has followed Riley since his days at Oklahoma. It's a trend that will need to end in order for USC to truly get back to the top of the college football world. A trend that will need to end in order for Riley's tenure at USC to really "work."

Since Riley became a head coach in 2017 at Oklahoma, he's coached a combined 10 conference championship and bowl games, going 5-5. Riley certainly deserves credit for consistently churning out teams that contend for conference titles and the College Football playoff. 

There's another side to the coin though. 

In the biggest games, his defenses haven't been good enough. Whether Mike Stoops or Alex Grinch has served as defensive coordinator, Riley-coached teams have given up an average of 36.3 points and 479.4 yards per game in conference championships and bowl games. 

That's not championship football.

Riley has coached three Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks as well as Jalen Hurts and Spencer Rattler in his career. In his 10 conference championships and bowl games, Riley's teams have scored an average of 37.1 points per game and gained an average of 481.2 yards per game. Those numbers are nearly identical to what his defenses have given up. 

That's not a winning formula.

Since 2017, Alabama has won two national titles and Clemson, Georgia and LSU have all won one. On just three occasions did one of those title winners allow more than 28 points and/or 450 yards in a conference title, CFP semifinal or national championship game. Giving up those point and yardage totals is an outlier, not the standard for championship-level teams. 

Whether it's firing Grinch, changing the scheme or recruiting different types of defensive players, Riley needs to change how his teams play defense. His offenses are consistently brilliant, but as the old adage goes, defense wins championships, and Riley's defenses have never been close to championship level.