Lincoln Riley has struggled at USC in many ways. One of his foremost problems as the Trojans' head coach has been his chronic inability to coach his team well in Big Ten football road games. Even when USC wins a Big Ten road game, it's not pretty. USC has never played a dominant, complete, thoroughly strong Big Ten road game.
The biggest concern going to Penn State is that Lincoln Riley's USC teams have been absolutely awful in Big Ten road games. Remember: Riley lost at Maryland in 2024. He lost at Minnesota. He lost at Illinois last year. Even when USC has won Big Ten road games, the team has never played well. Last year's road win at Purdue was an ugly, sloppy performance. The same goes for this year's seven-point win over a terrible Rutgers
team Indiana drilled Saturday night. USC just does not play well in Big Ten road games. Lincoln Riley has been flailing and failing for two-plus seasons, and this year's Rutgers game offered zero evidence anything will change in USC's third year in the Big Ten.
The biggest advantage USC has over Penn State is very simple: talent. USC has guys who will play on Sundays, mostly on offense. Jayden Maiava is a better quarterback than Arch Manning (and a lot of others are, too, but Maiava should be included). Elijah Paige is an NFL-caliber offensive lineman. If Mosley and/or Bowman play, those are two future NFL studs. Meanwhile, I never really bought into Penn State going into this season. Iowa State was not that great a year ago, and crucially, Jon Heacock - Matt Campbell's trusted and proven defensive coordinator with the Cyclones - retired instead of joining Campbell in Happy Valley. Heacock was a huge part of ISU's success, so Campbell's inability to bring him along to State College struck me as a big deal. USC clearly has more talent, but the Trojans under Riley regularly lose Big Ten road games to less talented teams. It's a game in which Lincoln Riley has earned zero benefit of the doubt. He has to prove that a leopard can change his spots.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Lincoln Riley has to solve Big Ten road game problem at Penn State
