There are lots of ways to express the frustration USC football fans rightly feel about the state of their program after six games, half of the 2026 season. The best and simplest way to underscore the failure of Lincoln Riley to do his job at USC is to emphasize that he is not new to this job anymore, and that the 2026 season isn't new, either.
Year 5
This is Year 5 of Lincoln Riley's USC tenure. Coaches generally deserve a honeymoon/grace period in Year 1 as they settle in. Even in Year 2, there can and will be adjustments to a new landscape. The general consensus in the college football industry is that at a blue-blood program such as USC, Year 3 should be the year when it all comes together and the very highly-paid coach figures it all out. Pete Carroll
was ahead of schedule. He had his rough maiden voyage in 2001 but then put the pieces together midway through his second season and got USC a BCS bowl win before he truly took off in Year 3. Lincoln Riley is here in Year 5, and the Trojans are stuck in their same old bad habits.
Big-boy program? Not USC
A big-boy program such as Ohio State or Alabama would never, ever, ever give a coach five years to figure things out if he couldn't figure them out in his first four years. Heck, Bama and Ohio State wouldn't give a coach a fourth season if he couldn't get it done in the first three. Lincoln Riley is being given so many extra chances to get the job done right, and he still can't succeed. This is not what a big-boy college football program looks like.
Game 6
This is not early September. This is October. USC started its season in late August. By Game 6, basic stuff - ya know, not committing horrible penalties which wipe out touchdowns, and not being able to line up properly - should be fully weeded out of a team's identity and habits. Yet, here we are, halfway through a season, and these things aren't getting nipped in the bud. They continue to resurface. Game 1? Of course there will be ragged displays by players getting used to a new season and the speed of live-game action after a month of preseason camp. Game 2? Sure. There will still be rough edges as adjustments continue to be made. By Game 6 - again, halfway through the season - the basics need to be mastered.
USC is nowhere close to that basic standard. It's a total indictment of Lincoln Riley and what he tolerates at USC.
If the players really believed in the coaching staff...
If USC football players truly trusted and respected the coaches, they wouldn't commit all these penalties. How else to explain Kayden Dixon-Wyatt getting an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the first 90 seconds of the second half, right out of the tunnel after halftime? How can we explain two illegal formation penalties on the same drive? If players and coaches trust each other and are on the same page, this stuff doesn't happen ... but it's happening, and it's happening over and over and over again.
Curt Cignetti and Nick Saban
You think this stuff is allowed to fly under the elite coaches? Of course not. Curt Cignetti and Nick Saban don't tolerate these mistakes. Lincoln Riley does. He can say he doesn't, but when it keeps happening, "You are what you are," as the saying goes. If Riley thinks his team is good, it needs to prove it. USC hasn't done that yet in 2026.
The depth issue at USC
Here's a key point to make: If USC really did have championship-level depth in the program, Lincoln Riley could yank players out of the game when they made intolerable mistakes. He could replace them with hungry players who don't screw up ... but that's the thing: No, USC doesn't have that kind of depth, to the extent that Lincoln Riley can impose in-game discipline by readily benching players. The guys making mistakes are, sadly, too important to the team. This is how and why a lack of sufficient depth is a crusher for building the right culture and team identity.
Desman Stephens
We aren't going to re-litigate how USC handled the Desman Stephens situation last week after the Oregon game. We are only going to point out that USC's defense, while mistake-prone and inconsistent, was not markedly worse without Desman Stephens on the field. In other words, USC can live without him. That's a point worth making after the Washington game. Lincoln Riley didn't have to defend him last week, and he doesn't have to defend him in the future.
USC receivers
Washington annually has some of the best cover corners in the nation. Check the NFL draft board every year. Washington consistently has a corner or safety in the pros and has a secret sauce which cranks out elite players in its secondary. We saw on Saturday night that Washington's secondary was a problem for USC's receivers, who looked mortal and did not play their best. This needs to be a wake-up call for Lincoln Riley and his receiver coach, Dennis Simmons. The USC receivers, without Trent Mosley and without tight end Mark Bowman to help out, aren't nearly as good as we all thought they were. Player development needs to be better even at the wide receiver room, which had been a team strength in September.
Lincoln Riley's possible lifeline
Lincoln Riley is in trouble at USC. The hot seat is burning, albeit not as much as it would have if USC had lost to Washington. What could save Riley, though, is how bad the rest of the Big Ten is, minus Ohio State and Indiana. Michigan, Penn State, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin - none of these teams are good. The Big Ten is way down from last season, when Ohio State, Indiana, and Oregon were all elite teams, with IU and UO meeting in the semifinals before Indiana won the national championship. If Riley can't take advantage, he truly deserves to be gone ... but this is an opportunity for him.
Penn State on the road at night
This is the perfect test for Lincoln Riley midway through Year 5. Penn State is not a good team. It just got its doors blown off by Northwestern. USC clearly has more talent. However, we all know how bad Lincoln Riley is in Big Ten road games. If he can't beat this version of Penn State, it's clear he's not up for the challenge at USC, and we can all spend November looking at possible replacements in the coaching carousel. If, on the other hand, USC can actually take care of business in a Big Ten road night game, maybe there's still a chance for Riley to rescue himself. It's a defining game. Let's see what happens ... and of course, you'll want to stay with us for coverage of that game all week long.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Lincoln Riley's failures are magnified because it's Year 5 | Opinion
