USC athletics and Jennifer Cohen might think Lincoln Riley should coach the Trojans in 2027. The buyout in the neighborhood of $70 million will have something to do with that if indeed USC retains Riley. In all probability, USC will keep Riley for another season to avoid eating all those dollars. We have tried to tell it straight. Politically, that seems to be the way the breeze is blowing. If it was up to us, however, we would swallow hard and digest the huge buyout. We think it's time for Lincoln Riley to go. Why so? We have said a lot about this subject, but after the loss to Indiana, there's one particular point we have to make.
Big Ten football was way down in 2026
We have to be honest: The Big Ten wasn't good this year. We can already say that. Ohio State and Oregon lost three
games apiece well before the end of the regular season. Michigan was bad. So was Penn State. Indiana still has just one loss, but we can all see the Hoosiers are far inferior to their 2025 iteration. UCLA leads the Big Ten with a backup quarterback and a very modest offense. There are no great teams in the conference. USC not being able to make the College Football Playoff in a year when the Big Ten was so weak is a massive failure which goes beyond numbers.
Big Ten quarterback injuries in 2026
Dante Moore, Julian Sayin, Josh Hoover, and Nico Iamaleava all got hurt this year. USC faced backup quarterbacks against Oregon, Ohio State, Indiana, and (coming up later this month) UCLA. The Trojans couldn't have had more good luck in terms of facing limited offenses without their best players at the most important position. Lincoln Riley failed to take advantage of this. If you think USC "came close" to making the playoff and the Big Ten title game this year, please realize the Trojans had amazing injury luck at quarterback and still couldn't cash it in.
Loss to Wisconsin
The loss to Wisconsin looks a million times worse after the Badgers got completely blown out by Iowa and then lost to Maryland in subsequent weeks. That 17-point loss was a disgrace and a game which now haunts USC even more than it did at the time.
Made Drew Mehringer look good
Oregon's season tanked because of offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer, whom Dan Lanning fired in the middle of the season. Never forget that USC allowed 41 points to a Mehringer offense earlier this season. That result also looks a lot worse now than it did then. USC didn't lose to Prime Oregon. It lost to a mediocre version of the Ducks.
Indiana did not play well
Indiana missed a field goal, threw an interception, committed a penalty which wiped out a touchdown, and played a very sloppy game against USC. Yet, the Trojans dropped four different interceptions and missed two field goals of their own, while Jayden Maiava drowned in a sea of turnovers. USC didn't face an elite version of Indiana. The Hoosiers spent the first two and a half quarters doing everything they could to keep the Trojans afloat. USC not being able to win on a day when its opponent struggled has to be part of the Lincoln Riley conversation.
What happens when the Big Ten gets better?
What happens when Ohio State improves its roster? What happens when Dan Lanning hires a better coordinator? What happens when Michigan figures out its quarterback position? What happens when Penn State finds its footing? What happens when Washington stops fooling around and plays up to its standards? The Big Ten isn't going to be this bad most years. Lincoln Riley couldn't beat the Big Ten when it was down. That's a horrendous result. Even if USC beats UCLA to finish 9-3, this is a massive failure.
A lot like 2025 for USC
The Trojans didn't play the elite version of Indiana in 2025. They also didn't play a very good version of Ohio State which had four top-12 NFL draft picks. USC went 9-3 against a soft schedule. That year's failure feels a lot like this one. USC received some good fortune and did nothing with it. If Lincoln Riley can't pounce when he gets good breaks, what happens when he gets really bad breaks?
2025 loss to Illinois
Much as 2026 Wisconsin is the loss USC fans will never be able to shake, 2025 Illinois fits in the same basic category for USC and Lincoln Riley. It's one thing to lose to a true juggernaut program; it's another matter to lose to a non-brand-name school. We mention Illinois simply to reinforce the point that a lot of the same things keep happening. This is not just a 2026 thing; it's a multi-year problem.
UCLA offers the contrast
Is UCLA a tremendous team? No ... but the Bruins have faced this weak Big Ten with a backup quarterback and have accomplished more than USC has with a healthy Jayden Maiava all season long. The Bruins are opportunistic in ways USC hasn't been under Lincoln Riley. Bob Chesney knows how to land the plane. Riley does not.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Lincoln Riley's failures at USC are greater than you think | Opinion
