Lincoln Riley literally ran out of answers.
The Southern California coach can’t explain why his team can’t finish off opponents.
“I don’t know,” USC’s third-year coach said Saturday, after his Trojans blew another second-half lead in a 29-28 loss at Maryland.
And out pop the pitchforks. Unless those pitchforks have $100 bills on the tips, Riley’s too pricy to fire – for now, at least.
While Oregon makes the transition to the Big Ten look like a breeze, USC (3-4) has an arduous road to simply making an also-ran bowl game – not that such a bid would be a salve.
They say you get what you pay for, but they’re wrong about the Trojans.
USC paid for a Ferrari, but a Kia Forte sits in the driveway on an empty tank.
The Trojans play too soft, especially at the end of games, but that’s no headline news. Soft play typifies Riley’s teams, and, in fact, this team has more appetite for defense than either of Riley’s first two USC squads.
More appalling – and more surprising – is the disappearance of Riley’s offense.
Riley once earned regard as college football’s brightest offensive guru. He developed not one, not two, but three Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks that were taken No. 1 overall in the NFL draft. His offense became his moneymaker, his failsafe, throughout his Oklahoma tenure and his USC debut.
Early in Riley’s Oklahoma tenure, the question seemed not whether Riley would win a national championship, but rather, how many.
Riley’s updated national title count: Zero.
He’s as far away as he’s ever been, as USC prepares to host Rutgers on Friday, in a battle for .500.
If Riley thought he’d feast on Pac-12 defenses, then USC’s entry to the Big Ten came as a sour twist. Teams have an appetite for defense in this conference, and Riley’s offense vanished in the 3M vise of Michigan, Minnesota and Maryland.
Riley proved he’s a smart coach, and USC has too much talent to stay down, right?
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I thought the same thing about Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M. Fisher never pulled out of his funk, though. The Aggies finally fired him – at a cost of a $77million buyout – in 2023, amid his sixth season. The Aggies already look better without Fisher.
Riley’s tenure emits a whiff of Jimbo.
The Trojans, like the Aggies, invested too much in this coach to fire him at the first or even the second sign of trouble. So, you muddle on, telling yourself it’s going to get better, it must get better, you’ve seen this guy do it, … until you finally realize you paid for a coach who inexplicably vaporized into a mist of mediocrity.
The Aggies redefined the standard for high-end coaching contracts when they awarded Fisher a 10-year, $75 million fully guaranteed contract to hire him from Florida State. The hire seemed like a slam dunk, and the Aggies foolishly doubled down with an even richer contract after Fisher’s third season.
At FSU, Fisher replaced legendary coach Bobby Bowden after previously being Bowden’s offensive coordinator. Fisher won at least 10 games in six of eight seasons there as FSU’s coach, and he captured a national championship in Year 4.
Fisher never won 10 games in a season at A&M.
Riley was Bob Stoops’ final offensive coordinator at Oklahoma, replaced Stoops as the Sooners’ coach to great success and now … the Jimbo freefall.
And Riley will turn it around, right? Just give it a little more time. Because, he’s a good coach, and USC attracts talent, and we’ve seen him do it before, and he can do it again. But, what if he can’t?
We said all these same things for years about Fisher. Today, Fisher’s unemployed.
Here’s what else I’m seeing in this view of college football from the “Topp Rope”:
How Georgia could finish ranked No. 1, but miss SEC championship game
Here’s a juicy development: No. 2 Georgia could win out but not reach the SEC championship game.
You might be thinking: Wait, didn’t Georgia restore its SEC front-runner status by mangling Texas?
In terms of optics, yes. In terms of the standings, no.
No. 7 LSU and No. 14 Texas A&M are undefeated in SEC play, and while only one of those teams could finish undefeated in the conference – the teams will square off Saturday in College Station – both teams could wind up in hte SEC championship, at the expense of Georgia.
The SEC’s intricate tiebreaker system might be needed to determine its championship contestants, and if that tiebreaker comes into play, Georgia’s loss to Alabama could haunt the Bulldogs.
Consider this scenario: The Aggies beat LSU, win out, and claim on SEC championship spot. LSU recovers from a loss to the Aggies to beat Alabama on Nov. 9 and win out.
LSU and Georgia don’t play, so there’s no head-to-head tiebreaker. If you proceed down the list of tiebreakers, an LSU win against Alabama, paired with Georgia’s loss to Alabama, would tip the scales in LSU’s favor.
Let’s get even wackier. Say No. 17 Missouri upsets No. 15 Alabama this weekend. There, too, Missouri would leapfrog Georgia in the tiebreaker pecking order.
To be clear, Georgia retains a shot at Atlanta if it keeps winning. The Aggies, LSU and Missouri might fizzle. The Bulldogs just don’t enjoy full control over their path.
Just imagine, Georgia finishes No. 1 in the final CFP rankings, but doesn’t get a spot in its league’s championship game, and therefore doesn’t receive a first-round playoff bye, because of the SEC’s tiebreaker rules.
Three and out
1. Riley’s not the only coach at a blue blood languishing in Year 3. Brent Venables made a mess of Oklahoma’s quarterback situation, starting with his failure to retain Dillon Gabriel, now the star of No. 1 Oregon. Venables fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell this week. Being a readymade scapegoat is part of a coordinator’s duties. But, if Oklahoma doesn’t get a quick-fix transfer quarterback this offseason, Venables might be the next one out the door.
2. Dan Lanning doesn’t appreciate leftovers. He’s all about cleaning his plate.
“You don’t sit halfway through a meal and say you’re done eating when there’s still a lot of food left on the plate,” Oregon’s coach said.
To which he means, there’s no prize for starting 7-0. As to the Ducks’ No. 1 ranking?
“Who cares,” he said.
Oh, c’mon, that’s no way to treat the US LBM Coaches Poll!
3. Too bad Texas already played Michigan. In Michigan, you can receive 10 cents for recycling a beer bottle.
If Texas collected 2.5 million bottles and recycled them in Michigan, it could pay its $250,000 fine, imposed by the SEC after Texas fans trashed the field with bottles during Saturday’s loss to Georgia. Now, wouldn’t that be the ultimate college football story? Paying your fine with the same bottles that caused the fine.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
The “Topp Rope” is his football column published throughout the USA TODAY Network.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: USC football’s Lincoln Riley out of answers like Jimbo Fisher was
