National Analyst Declares ‘It’s Over’ for Lincoln Riley at USC

Entering December of 2022, things couldn’t have been going any better for USC football.  In year one of the Lincoln Riley era the Trojans were headed to the Pac 12 championship game where a win over Utah would send them to the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history.

Their Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Caleb Williams got roughed up that night by Utah however, and despite a 6-0 start to 2023, things haven’t really ever been the same in Troy.

After the unbeaten Trojans were thoroughly dominated by Notre Dame 48-20 in mid-October, they’d go just 1-5 in the back half of the regular season.  Now they enter with Williams off to the NFL and viewed as a fringe top 25 team entering the 2024 season.

Because of that one prominent national college football analyst has declared that “It’s over” for Riley at USC.

After a discussion with analyst Bruce Feldman this week, Finebaum said the following of Riley’s time with the Trojans:

“Bruce Feldman said a minute ago that he thought they are looking at about seven wins, which is pretty dangerous when you are the USC coach and you have two back-to-back bad seasons,” Finebaum said.

“I mean, I think it’s over for Lincoln Riley, anyway. To me, he’s lost control. And once you lose control, you’re like in the middle of quicksand,” Finebaum added.

USC opens the year against LSU while trips to Michigan and Washington both await. They also welcome stiff competition against Penn State and Notre Dame both in the Coliseum.

I don’t know if I’m willing to go nearly as far as Finebaum does with Riley.  Navigating the NIL landscape and transfer portal in a new location is ridiculously tough.  However, the stock has certainly dipped with a difficult season awaiting.

Not that Riley has been without fault at USC, but from afar it seems that…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/national-analyst-declares-over-lincoln-180116353.html

Author : Fighting Irish Wire

Publish date : 2024-06-21 18:01:16

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.