Is Lincoln Riley ACTUALLY On The Hot Seat? | Who Could Replace Him?

Comments · 241

• OH

  @ohrick8707 · 19 hours ago

  Since Cignetti, all coaches are on the hot seat, to some degree.

  5

• CH

  @chimi_chongo · 20 hours ago

  Brian Flores is my pick. We need a defensive mind at the helm that build tough nosed ball club again. NFL owners are not to fond of him so for the right price I think he’d take it.

  6

• BC

  @BCH2K · 20 hours ago

  Hit the nail on the head with intensity and toughness. USC hasn’t had a football coach in years, Kiffin, Sark, Helton were all laid back and passive compared to John McKay or Pete Carroll. Don’t need a “splash” hire, need a detail oriented and disciplined guy.

  5

• SA

  @sackofmojojr.1758 · 21 hours ago

  Let’s give Coach Riley until the end of the season or a few more games to redeem himself. Yes, we lost to Oregon again but weren’t dominated the whole game like years past. Listen to Yogi Roth’s podcast with Todd Blackledge about the state of USC program. They have objective and optimistic things to say. JMHO. Let’s go!! Fight on!!! ✌️🤙👍🙏🎉

  17

• LU

  @lurchlogan · 20 hours ago

  Since Pete Carroll left after the 2009 season. USC has had 4 full-time HC. All 4 were not only offensive minded coaches but all were former QB coaches with varying degrees of success but nothing sustainable. I hope they go a different direction this time.  ✌🏻❤️💛

  10

• ST

  @SteveJ-o2e · 20 hours ago

  I want USC to hire a defensive minded coach. The last four coaches USC has hired have been offensive guys. I think they need an elite defensive guy running the show. Offense at USC will always be very good. There are just so many talented offensive players in California to recruit. Defense has always been the problem. Except for when Pete Carroll was here. A defensive guy.

  3

• LA

  @lamonsta6705 · 21 hours ago (edited)

  USC culture what’s been wrong….<br>By spending 15 years running from conflict, hiring for corporate comfort, and chasing expensive cosmetic fixes, Pat Haden and Mike Bohn systematically stripped USC of the &quot;us against the world&quot; edge that defined its greatest eras. They actively built an undisciplined, soft-identity culture that has left the modern program structurally broken and anchored to a low competitive ceiling.<br>The decay began under yellow back Patty Haden, who established a standard of corporate capitulation by rolling over to vindictive NCAA sanctions instead of fighting back with the full weight of USC’s wealth. Patty Haden famously chose a reactive, classless public relations move over program loyalty when he fired the fiery, competitive Lane Kiffin on an LAX tarmac at 3:00 AM. Lane Kiffin had fought valiantly through those devastating 30-scholarship reductions, dragging a depleted roster to a 10-2 record in 2011. Yet Haden famously pulled him off the team bus at 3:00 AM at the private airport terminal near LAX following a 2013 loss to Arizona State to fire him. It was an classless, reactive move designed to appease media critics rather than protect the program. Seeking a non-threatening environment, Haden then hand-picked Clay Helton to run a lax, &quot;aw-shucks&quot; locker room that conditioned players to accept compliance over competitive fire. Before stepping down, Haden finalized this institutional country-club loop by coaxing a completely unprepared Lynn Swann into an athletic director job he never sought, locking the university into a cycle of administrative stagnation and unvetted contract extensions.<br>When Mike Bohn arrived, he merely swapped Haden&apos;s corporate compliance for a cosmetic illusion. Panicking under intense pressure from a frustrated fan base, Bohn hunted for a glamorous shortcut rather than doing the hard work of building a physical program. He threw a 10-year, $110 million mega-contract at Lincoln Riley purely to win the introductory press conference and sell tickets at the Coliseum. In doing so, Bohn bought a flashy offensive engine while entirely ignoring the rotted lines of scrimmage, leaving the university anchored to an unprecedented $70 million buyout trap the moment the team exposed its lack of depth.<br>This decade and a half of administrative surrender set the stage for the Lincoln Riley reality, which represents the ultimate soft ceiling for elite talent. Much like the administrators who hired him, Riley has routinely insulated himself with comfortable assistants and familiar faces rather than hiring alpha disciplinarians who might challenge his philosophy. He brought a finesse-based, 7-on-7 summer camp blueprint into a physical, line-of-scrimmage Big Ten conference. The result is a stomach-churning regression where five-star athletes underachieve at a 75% capacity, saddling USC with an identical 39-19 record to Clay Helton but a pathetic 5-15 record against ranked opponents much worse than Helton’s 10-16 vs ranked opponents with a Conference title and Rose Bowl.<br>CEO ring<br>Kiffin ring<br>Sark ring<br>Carroll ring<br>Everyone has won afterward the last run except USC Football as that should tell you something.

  10

• AN

  @AndreP1524 · 21 hours ago

  Riley isn’t a Jennifer Cohen or Chad Bowden hire, And Chad Bowden played a HUGE role in getting them back up in recruiting, So if they do move on I trust Cohen and Bowden, And they will have a shit ton of candidates

  12

• JQ

  @jqscott4489 · 20 hours ago

  Joey McGuire is the perfect fit at SC. He has the ability to build a championship culture with great players. I don’t know if Texas Tech will ever get the level of talent to win a national championship with McGuire because some 5 and 4 stars just aren’t going to Lubbock, TX.

  3

• SP

  @SportZFan4L1fe · 16 hours ago

  USC needs a California Coach like Pete Carroll who understands USC. These Texas Coaches like Lincoln Riley and Clay Helton are Not a fit at USC.

  2

• OO

  @oomagooma1107 · 14 hours ago

  “My mentality going into it is, we&apos;re going to do everything that we can in this program to accelerate the process of us playing great defense at USC.&quot; CLR

• SP

  @SportZFan4L1fe · 12 hours ago

  RECRUITING HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WINNING! It all comes down to COACHING.