Five years and no playoffs.
Five years and a win against a top 10 team.
Five years and a victory over a ranked opponent on the road.
Five years, and that’s enough.
The Lincoln era Riley must be put out of his misery after another slap in the face Saturday in a 27-13 loss to defending champion Indiana at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington.
Following another loss marked by turnovers, penalties and poor scoring, USC officials need to text their coach with the exact word he used when he strangely ended his postgame press conference after the win over Ohio State.
Adios.
Quick, can you catch it on the tarmac?
Riley needs to be fired even if he wins his last two games and finishes 9-3, because that’s not good enough to make the College Football Playoff, which means it’s not good enough.
Riley needs to be fired even if he somehow manages to pull out a win in two weeks in the season finale against UCLA, because he’s already ceded all the local buzz to Bob Chesney and his dream machine.
Riley should be fired as soon as the UCLA game is over. Officials should let some interims handle the lame bowl game while using the month to try to fix the giant mistake they made.
Yes, Lincoln Riley was a big, big mistake, a $110 million mistake whose erasure is now worth redeeming at all costs.
In five years, his 42-21 mark is only a few percentage points better than Clay Helton’s 46-24 mark at the time of his firing.
In five years, he has beaten just one top 10 team, he is 6-16 against top 25 opponents and he is 1-8 against ranked opponents on the road.
The game against No. 9 Indiana was his last chance to save himself, his last chance to make the playoffs for the first time, his last chance to fulfill the promise of all those billboards seen around town.
“The time has come: now. »
It turns out that “Time is never.”
Against an Indiana team playing without its starting quarterback or starting running back, the Trojans racked up 87 yards of penalties, committed three turnovers, missed two field goal attempts and generally wasted a good effort with undisciplined mistakes.
The game was actually tied until late in the third quarter, but the Trojans were outscored by a dozen yards this year in the fourth quarter, and so they fell behind again.
“Our guys believe that … in critical moments, we play well,” Indiana coach Curt Cignetti told CBS. “We picked it up when we needed to.”
The Trojans clearly don’t believe it, and if they do, they don’t show it. They never take over when needed. It was just the latest in a season filled with meltdowns.
There was the loss to Oregon in which Riley essentially tolerated Desman Stephens II’s violent and provocative behavior after the linebacker knocked quarterback Dante Moore out of the game.
There was the loss to Wisconsin in which USC had minus-17 rushing yards. Seriously, how do you finish with minus-17 rushing yards?
Then there was Saturday, when the Trojans gained 409 yards against the nation’s fourth-ranked defense and still lost because they gave up 451 yards.
Indiana scored first, a touchdown on its first possession, then the Trojans responded with a field goal before Indiana kicked a field goal to seemingly solidify its first half lead at 10-3.
USC coach Lincoln Riley looks toward the field during a loss to Wisconsin on October 24.
(Ross Harried/Associated Press)
But in the final moments of the half, the Trojans came alive, with USC capitalizing on a Deven Bryant interception to drive 60 yards in 16 seconds and end the half with a seven-yard touchdown pass from Jayden Maiava to Zacharyus Williams to tie the score 10-10.
The teams traded field goals to start the third quarter before the Hoosiers used two big plays to drive 75 yards and score the touchdown in the final minutes of the third quarter on a 1-yard plunge by Khobie Martin after his 37-yard run.
The Trojans responded with a 65-yard drive that ended in failure, sunk by their second missed field goal, a 27-yard attempt by Caden Chittenden.
The Trojans launched another long drive a few minutes later, but were stopped when the Hoosiers’ Isaiah Jones intercepted Maiava at the 7-yard line with 6:35 left.
The Hoosiers responded with a touchdown drive capped by a daring 42-yard touchdown pass from Grant Wilson to Charlie Becker, and that was it.
“We had real opportunities to win this game. … Play to play, we’re probably tied,” Riley said afterward. “We made too many mistakes.”
Those errors included three dropped interceptions, which turned into 10 points for Indiana.
“We’ve definitely come a long way as a program, but we still have a little ways to go,” Riley said.
With that kind of talent, Riley is right: they’re close. But as a coach who seems better suited as an offensive coordinator than a leader, he’s not the man to lead the Trojans to the finish line.
“I believe in myself. … We know how close we are. … We’re going to keep fighting. We’ll get there,” Riley said.
There is one thing he said in his post-match press conference that there can be no discussion. “This has to be a championship-level program,” he said.
He’s right. This is why his continued presence as boss is so bad.
Gn sports
