Paul Finebaum has been very vocal about Lincoln Riley. Last week, the ESPN college football analyst said Riley was a “Disaster.”
Last season went south for the Trojans, losing five of its last seven games to finish a disappointing 8-5. Finebaum called it the worst coaching job he’d ever seen. In fact, he thinks this will be Riley’s last year with Southern Cal, ”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.”
.@finebaum says Deion Sanders would be the perfect replacement for Lincoln Riley at USC 👀 pic.twitter.com/9HbqEYDG4u
— First Take (@FirstTake) July 22, 2024
Speaking with Stephen A. Smith, Finebaum said, “To me it's about trajectory. And he’s (Riley) lost the momentum. You have to win in LA, otherwise you lose badly and I think he’s losing badly.”
But Finebaum has come up with a replacement, “I believe the answer after this season is Deion Sanders. He’s going to be fired at Colorado, because quite frankly, it’s (Colorado) not prime time. He’s done the best he can there. … But you put ‘Prime’ in Tinseltown and I think you have one of the great combinations in history.”
"I think Deion Sanders as the coach at Southern Cal is the answer to the problems,” Finebaum continued. “Lincoln Riley is a good coach. He’s got a great resume. Deion Sanders just exudes exactly what that community is all about. Can you imagine a year from today, Deion Sanders walks into Big Ten Media Days. Everybody else, get out of the way.”