USC football will 'unravel' in Week 1, Paul Finebaum warns

Never one to shy away from expressing his opinions of USC or Lincoln Riley, now Paul Finebaum predicts the Trojans' season will effectively end in Week 1.

College football personality Paul Finebaum has some bad news for Lincoln Riley and USC heading into the 2024 season. / Ken Ruinard / staff via Imagn Content Services, LLC

College football analyst Paul Finebaum weighed in on the fate of USC football coach Lincoln Riley again, and predictably, he foresees disaster. Right away, in fact.

Making their Big Ten debut this fall, USC opens up the 2024 season in Las Vegas against LSU in a game that Finebaum thinks will effectively destroy their season right away.

"I fully expect Lincoln Riley to show what an average coach he is."@finebaum says USC will start to "unravel" Week 1 against LSU 😳 pic.twitter.com/uRnGzOzOm0

— First Take (@FirstTake) August 13, 2024

"I think that's where it starts to unravel to Lincoln," Finebaum said. "People will be able to turn off the TV and go to sleep early that night because it won't be that close."

USC has lost a ton of talent, including former Heisman quarterback and No. 1 overall draft pick Caleb Williams, but so has LSU, which lost its own Heisman quarterback and is playing subpar defense lately.

"Southern Cal, to me, isn't going anywhere except maybe seeing Lincoln Riley depart here in a year or two," Finebaum said. "I'm just so underwhelmed by what he's done there."

Once regarded as the biggest up-and-coming name among the college football head coaching ranks, Lincoln Riley is just 19-8 in two years at USC and now, with the school embarking on a historic move to the Big Ten amid this year's conference realignment, the pressure is mounting.

Things have not gone according to plan for USC since bringing Riley on two years ago. His famous sudden departure from Oklahoma and debut at the Coliseum seemed like something out of a Hollywood blockbuster, and for a time it seemed like the Trojan faithful finally had their man.

USC won 11 games in Riley's debut season and quarterback Caleb Williams was awarded the Heisman Trophy, but its porous defense sabotaged the team at the moment it seemed like a College Football Playoff berth was inevitable.

An ugly loss to Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game and a 1-point defeat to Group of Five program Tulane in the Cotton Bowl was a disappointing end to an otherwise-hopeful campaign.

Then, a year ago, Riley's team went just 8-5 behind another disastrous defensive effort, losing to four ranked teams but finished with a win over Louisville in the Holiday Bowl.

Now it's up to Riley to revive the program heading into a new era and put the Trojans back in the national title conversation, or else.

Related: "It's over" for Lincoln Riley at USC, Paul Finebaum predicts

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