The Big Ten officially expands this season, welcoming four teams from the Pac-12. The highest profile of the four is USC. And the highest profile coach is Lincoln Riley.
That should position the Trojans well for what will be a challenging transition. But some analysts are forecasting doom for Southern Cal. ESPN’s Paul Finebaum issues a very bleak forecast for Trojans fans.
Speaking from SEC Media Days, Finebaum had harsh words for Riley, “I think he’s been a disaster.”
After five great years at Oklahoma, Riley bolted Norman and took the head coaching job in Los Angeles. There were rumors at the time OU’s entrance into the SEC was the biggest reason for leaving Oklahoma. Finebaum explains, “Let’s go back three years, Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC. … What did Lincoln Riley do? He ran away. He did not want to deal with the Southeastern Conference at OU. He took what he thought was an easier course. So he goes out to Southern Cal. He takes Caleb Williams. Good for a year, but since then everything has gone wrong.”
The Trojans were 11-3 in year one of Riley’s tenure and Williams won the Heisman. But Southern Cal took a huge step backwards in year two, going 8-5. USC lost five of its last seven games. “I thought last year was one of the worst coaching jobs I’ve ever seen," Finebaum continued.
Even at OU, Riley’s teams struggled on the defensive side of the ball. That’s a focus of Finebaum’s criticism, “If I had been the Athletic Director at Southern Cal, I would have fired Lincoln Riley because he has yet to show, after many years as a head coach, he knows about defense. He’s gone through defensive coordinators. He just simply couldn’t handle it.”
Now that USC is switching to a new conference, Finebaum thinks it will get even worse, “Now things are going to be five times worse in the Big Ten. On top of that, a number of his top players are bailing out.”
How does the ESPN analyst think it will turn out? Finebaum thinks this is Riley’s last year in charge of the Trojans, ”This is a guy who owned LA for about a half a minute and quite frankly next year at this time, I think he’ll more than likely be an assistant in the NFL, if he’s that lucky.”