USC Football: Lincoln Riley Says Trojans "Not That Good Yet" In Second Season

Lincoln Riley shared his thoughts on a disappointing 2023 campaign.

As Lincoln Riley reflects on his second season at USC, one that is a meaningless bowl game away from being over, he knows how it looks to go from having a Heisman winner and a Pac-12 Championship appearance the first year and a dud 7-5 season the next.

"I think on the outside there’s going to be a perception of, “How could you win 11 in the first and seven in the (second)?” The reality is the two teams weren’t that much different, and I think we had some struggles and some things last year — we had some major holes. … You could take three or four plays from the whole season and I can show you a 10-win team. It still wouldn’t change the things that have to get better for us to be at the level we want to be."

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Austin Morales of The Athletic

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The problem with adopting that perspective, one that suggests the program is in decline or that Riley underperformed, is that it fails to take into account the number of close games USC won in 2022, Riley told The Athletic's Antonio Morales.

"Listen, I'm as disappointed as anybody the way we played in the second half of the season. Probably more. And, I think, is it gut-wrenching to me that we didn’t find a way to be at our best, that we didn’t find a way to win some of those games? Yes. Did I know there were issues whether we won them or not and that were going to have to get addressed and improved for us to be a perennial contender? Yeah. Like I told you guys and like I told a lot of people after last year, even sitting there at 11-1 going into the Pac-12 Championship Game, in my mind we’ve done some great things, the kids have really bought in, but we’re still not that good yet."

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Austin Morales of The Athletic

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Riley entered USC as the symbol of a shift in the program's decline under head coach Clay Helton. With Riley's history of coaching Heisman-winning, NFL-caliber quarterbacks and his experience reaching (but not winning) the first round of the College Football Playoff, the Lubbock native brought the essence of college football back to a school that had lost interest in their once-great Trojans.

As a USC student at the time, I witnessed the excitement the year Riley made the stunning move to Los Angeles as well as the disappointment at the Pac-12 Championship game when the bubble burst on the Trojans' all-too-real hopes of making the CFP.

The problems in 2022, in many ways, were the same as those in 2023. There was talent on the defensive side of the ball, but missed tackles and allowing explosive plays hurt the Trojans all season. The teams USC should blow out with the difference in offensive firepower — particularly with Williams at the helm — were able to stay in the game.

"Year 1 is a great example. We had a lot of holes, but you never put limits on what you can accomplish," Riley said. "You can have a year where you win a bunch of tight games. We were phenomenal in turnovers last year. You find a way to go get it done even though maybe you’re not dominant. You’re not the group that’s going to blow out 75 percent of the teams you play and play only two or three close games and you find a way to win them and you’re in good shape. That’s where the dominant teams in college football are at right now. We’re not to that point."

(Via



Austin Morales of The Athletic

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Next season, Riley will not only have to find someone to fix the defense, but he will be faced with the difficult task of replacing one of the best college football players in recent memory.

For more of Riley's takeaways from the Trojans' 7-5 2023 campaign, read Morales' full interview in The Athletic.

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