USC Football: Paul Finebaum Sees Hall of Famer as Perfect Lincoln Riley Replacement

SEC expert Paul Finebaum believes USC should give up on head coach Lincoln Riley and pursue this over-the-top head coach.

Dec 27, 2023; San Diego, CA, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley reacts in the second half against the Louisville Cardinals during the Holiday Bowl at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

As the USC Trojans enter this pivotal 2024 season with some new pieces in a new conference, optimism couldn't be any higher for the Trojans. Last season was less than ideal, and now head coach Lincoln Riley and his team will look to prove that it was just a tiny speed bump on the road. 2024 will present some whole new changes and challenges to the Trojans, and according to SEC expert Paul Finebaum, that could mean the end for Riley in the cardinal red and gold after the season. 

Finebaum is confident Riley will be canned after the season, and he has a perfect replacement for him in 2025. According to the SEC expert, he believes USC should bring in Colorado head coach Deion Sanders as his replacement. 

Finebaum appeared on ESPN's First Take and elaborated on why the Trojans should bring in Sanders. 

"Instead of harping on Lincoln Riley, I decided to come up with a solution. I thought about this the other day. OK, maybe [Lincoln Riley] does well, maybe he doesn't. But the answer is really moving forward, and I believe the answer after this season is Deion Sanders," Paul Finebaum said. "He's going to be tired of Colorado, because quite frankly it's not prime time. He's done as well as he can with his son and Travis Hunter and all the Stephen A. and Shannon Sharpe appearances. But that's really going to dry up this year, because they're not going to be that great.

"But you put Prime in Tinseltown, and I think you have one of the great combinations in history," Finebaum said. "I think Deion Sanders as the coach at Southern Cal is the answer to the problems."

That would certainly shake up the entire program, but Riley isn't going anywhere unless something disastrous happens with USC this upcoming season. 

The Trojans are coming off a disappointing 8-5 season in 2023, having dropped five of the last seven games. Finebaum also added a couple of days ago that Riley has yet to show any true progression in the once-storied program and that USC will be in big trouble in the Big Ten. 

"Quite frankly, had I been the Athletics Director at Southern Cal, I would've fired Lincoln Riley because he's yet to show, after many years as a head coach, that he knows anything about defense," Finebaum recently said. "He's not going to the playoffs and he's not going to survive Southern California. The Big Ten is going to eat him up. … The one thing LA hates is a loser, and right now, I think Lincoln Riley looks like a loser."

Sanders replacing Riley in Los Angeles is far from reality at this point. Colorado was underwhelming in his first season at the helm, and things don't expect to improve as they enter a new conference, the Big 12. 

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