USC Trojans' Lincoln Riley: 'We've Played The Toughest Schedule In The Country'

In a must-win game, the USC Trojans blow a 17-point lead on their home field to lose a 33-30 game in overtime. Littered with missed opportunities and questionable decisions, this brutal loss buries any college football playoff hope.

Oct 12, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley, left, talks with Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin on the field prior to the game at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

The USC Trojans had preseason goals that included making the college football playoff this season. Coming into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hosting a Big Ten conference game against No. 4 Penn State, the Trojans’ backs were against the wall. There was no way around it, this was a must-win game. 

At the end of a seesaw game where USC was in control for most of the game, the Trojans suffered arguably the most crushing loss of Lincoln Riley’s tenure with a 33-30 overtime home loss. Lincoln Riley is 11-10 in his last 21 games as coach. The Trojans are now 3-3 overall and 1-3 in Big Ten conference play. The playoff dream is officially dead. 

“The reality is, we've played the toughest schedule in the country. The first six games. We've had a chance to win every single game, and that's hard to do. Like to put yourself in position to win these games is freaking hard to do to begin with. So we're doing a lot of good, and I understand that that good's not going to get seen by the outside right now, because they're going to focus on the record and the fact that we've lost three games in the last play.“

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Oct 12, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; USC Trojans quarterback Miller Moss (7) throws a pass in the first half against the Penn State Nittany Lions United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

At face value, Riley’s postgame comments sound nice. It’s great coach-speak, but it’s devoid of accountability and context. The USC Trojans had the best first half of the Lincoln Riley era. The Trojans finished the first half with 147 yards rushing. They came into the game averaging 149 rushing yards per game. 

The defense held Penn State to six first-half points and held a 20-6 lead at the break. You couldn’t have asked for a better start. Once again, it looked like the Trojans were turning a corner and finally playing up to their capabilities. They’ve shown they can do it in spurts, but it’s never been sustained. 

History repeated itself in the second half in the worst way possible for this USC team and Lincoln Riley. In less than three minutes, Penn State scored a touchdown. It was a 20-20 ball game in less than ten minutes. Just like that, the lead was gone.

It happened again. For the second consecutive week, USC was in control of a game with a chance to stop all opposing momentum and began to fall apart. With 17 point lead evaporated, the Trojans showed some resolve to fight back and take a 23-20 lead and then a 30-23 lead. 

There was 5:56 left in the game and a 30-23 USC lead. One stop virtually ends the game. Not only did Penn State drive 75 yards in 12 plays, they converted back-breaking 4th downs. 4th and seven and once more on 4th and 10.  Penn State scored to tie the game at 30-30. As good as the defense has been most of the season, this marks the third game they’ve given up a game-tying or game-winning drive in regulation. 

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Oct 12, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley walks off the field following the game against the Penn State Nittany Lions at United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Lincoln Riley’s late-game clock management once again was questionable as the Trojans inexplicably mismanaged their timeouts and handcuffed themselves as time waned. The Trojans, who had opportunity after opportunity to finish the game, were now in overtime.

The Trojans' offense got the ball first and went three and out. Then kicker Michael Lantz missed a 45-yard field goal. Penn State set up their kicker Ryan Barker for a 36-yard field goal and he drilled it. The Trojans once again found a way to lose a ball game they had full control over. 

"You have to keep perspective…If you change two plays this year, then we're 5-0, and we feel like we're world beaters and we're worried about being over confident," 

That was Lincoln Riley’s message on Monday after another fourth quarter collapse against Minnesota. 

“Yeah, shoot, they, you know, they all hurt. You know, this one especially was excruciating, just in the, you know, the manner that had happened. I think, you know, the flip side of that is that, you know, we've got a really, really good locker room for really great people and really great coaches that's going to continue to stay together, come go out and run this back half of the season. That's the number four in the country. So what does that make us?" said Miller Moss after the game.

At some point, the sentiment expressed by the coaches and team has to translate to wins. There’s no more playoff talk. There’s no more championship talk. This team might be lucky to make a bowl game. Being close to being a good team isn’t enough at USC.

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