FOOTBALL

USC Sunday Buzz: Lincoln Riley’s On Guard

The end of USC’s season accomplished one thing: It removed that aura of invincibility Lincoln Riley had with the fans for almost the entire season.

I’ve already written I expect USC to win the Pac-12 and go to the College Football Playoff next season, so I’m not saying Riley is not a good coach.

But he’s now on guard — as doing an uncharacteristic two-hour press conference last week demonstrated — because his decisions are widely being questioned.

That’s a good thing. Too often in Los Angeles, coaches get a free ride from the media/fans. There’s nothing wrong with accountability. It also makes some of Coach Bohn’s pronouncements ring hollow.

It’s always good to imagine if what happened here with teams happened in Philadelphia or New York. Or look at the English Premier League. You lose five or six games in a row and it’s the sack.

  • The best fallout of the Chargers-Jaguars game has been the criticism that Al Michaels was mailing in the game.

“Al Michaels was too bored to call the end of the game. Come on man,” said USA Today’s Dan Wolken.

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40 thoughts on “USC Sunday Buzz: Lincoln Riley’s On Guard”

      3. Prince Harry: “No aftershave is powerful enough to protect those you love from racism…. but Secret still makes me better about myself ….sometimes.”
        #”Secret!NowAvailableToThePeonClassAt$2000AnOunce!”

        Liked by 2 people

      6. In one year: most everybody is sick of Harry’s complaining.
        In two years: wifey meets somebody richer.
        In three years: Harry indicates he wants to serve England again

        Liked by 1 person

    2. hi john,wut iz u tawkin abowt wen u sez he got an aroma of invinceuhbillitey,wut the hel that evin meen,smdh

      It means you dumb Fuc with nothing better to do, Fuc boy . 😂😂😂 Your shit is getting old , so go do your stand up act somewhere else 😂😂😂

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  2. C’mon man! Nothing about bad mouthing the “Fan Boys”? Now they are the media/fans. What the hell is going on Wolf?
    Seriously, we never would have gotten a 2 hour Q/A from the previous coaches, the media would have left 30 minutes into it. The buck stops with Riley and he is answerable and ultimately responsible. Good show Riley.

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    1. Helton isn’t capable of a 2 minute Q/A.

      I still believe Riley should have cut ties with Grinch. Just one more season of Caleb, and if feel like that one season is being mortgaged by keeping a defense that appeared low energy and was defeatist in the last 6 games. Hopefully the three portal d-line guys will move the needle, as well as getting back Romello Height, who was lost for the entire year.

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      1. Did you guys listen to the characterizations of that 2 hour “interview” put out by the suck-up journalists who attended? It goes like this:
        “Coach, are you satisfied with the defense?”
        “I’m satisfied things will get better!”
        “Thank you! What an amazing answer! You’re the man!”
        [Summary of “2 Hour Interview” — a nice collection of rubes got played]….
        #NoQuestionsWereAnswered…
        #RileyProvedHe’sNotOnlyAGoodCoach…He’sAGreatPolitician

        Liked by 6 people

  3. Coach Riley is maybe the premier offensive mind in college football. Barring injuries I don’t think any defensive coordinator in the Pac 12 will be able to stop him in 2023. But his greatest strength [total absorption & preoccupation with how to maximize his use of every square inch of space on a football field] is also his greatest weakness. He doesn’t have time to worry about the defense —which means he’s delegating to people who aren’t in his class when it comes to doing THEIR jobs. I remember Connor McGregor’s trainer telling a story about how Connor was the greatest striker he ever trained….but he could give a crap about the grappling part of his game. Until he gotten taken out in 30 seconds by a grappler —then it finally dawned on him that he needed to expand his skillset …if he wanted a championship belt.

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    1. The most worrying part of the interviews with Riley was his statement that he needed to be more involved in the defense. Really? Isnt that why you hire a defensive coordinator?

      As the OC for his team he is already getting pulled away from head coach duties. Now he is going to take responsibility for the defense? Not a good move.

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    2. Typical Trojans Ass Lick Fanboys comment 😂😂 “Premier offensive Mind in college football?” Take Lincoln Riley’s D-I-C-K out of your mouth for a minute, and count how many champions he’s won … LMAO 😂😂😂

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      1. Envy is such an ugly emotion, Chip.
        [Scott posted something about Charles White being 1% body fat and 99% muscle —– thank you for being the living, breathing embodiment of the reciprocal numbers]….

        Liked by 1 person

  4. It would have appeared to be premature in terms of a dismissal by Riley of Grinch only for the appearance of any future hire(s.) The hope seems to be in better players (can’t hurt) but they’re gonna roll the dice on this scheme again.It better work, or Riley’s going to play the “Should-woulda-coulda” card again.I think he’s just in a difficult position in that way. Otherwise, how could you ever sell a prospective assistant to uproot and move? Again, it’s a tough call. Loyalty does matter to some degree in coaching.

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  6. Amusing mentioning fan/media reaction in PHI and NYC. The eastern seaboard has no college football presence – none at all. There was an insightful article written in the NYTimes about 10+ years ago going into detail how the eastern seaboard had the Ivy League schools and the alumnae faithfully sent their sons to those same schools generation after generation until after WW2. The shift was sons and daughters wanting to attend a school with ‘teams’ and pageantry instead of just pageantry.

    The X Olympiad had brought worldwide attention to Los Angeles and that was a direct result of USC prowess per football (Coliseum). The Univ of California decision to open up a campus in LA (Ucla) and the slow but ever bitter rivalry with USC gave more attention to the region. 1946 saw the arrival of the Rams from Cleveland then in 1958 the Dodgers, Lakers i 1960 and the expansion Angels in 1961. USC’s dominance in football was matched by Ucla in men’s basketball.

    NYC had nothing to match this – they had fine schools but not ‘fans’ attending college sporting events because there weren’t any worth watching.

    MLB and NFL rule the eastern seaboard and for NYC and BOS it IS MLB that obsesses them with NBA for BOS but NYC strictly MLB.

    Consider why the Summer Olympics have never been seriously considered for NYC – they have ‘1’ football stadium, 3 NBA/NHL stadiums and 2 MLB stadiums aside from Forest Hills Tennis. They have 2 MLS franchises – Red Bulls play in NJ while the NYFC is at Yankee Stadium planning a home stadium in 2027.

    Contrast LA metro – 3 football stadiums, 3+ NBA/NHL stadiums, 2 MLS stadiums, 2 major universities and both in the top 3 of NCAA championships, host to 2 + 1 Summer Olympiads (X, XXIII and XXXIV).

    I saw Helton daily grilled by the 4th estate and rightly so – I don’t know what else Riley was supposed to say aside from Grinch staying and I believe Brandon Staley is about to be justifiably sacked as an over promoted bad head coach by the media.

    All of this is coincided with the explosion of Los Angeles beginning in the late 1920s and fully metastasizing post WW2.

    That single fact alone is what drives NYC crazy – LA. We didn’t kow tow to NYC as all the rest of the USA cities had…and best of all we don’t care what they think – as Bill Walton said when he was quitting the Celtics in 1986 “…I’m going back to LA where MNF starts at 5 pm!”

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      1. That’s the point – no ‘real’ insight specific to college sports esp. football/basketball no instead we have discussions about ‘equity’ but note the college football and basketball at all levels is the NBA/NFL farm system that neither pay a dime for – why isn’t that open for discussion? Why aren’t the owners and the league/association officials made to pay into a coffer for both programs nationally?

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  7. The Supreme Court in an 8-1 decision ruled today that ex Pres Donald Trump cannot de classify classified material just by thinking about it. Long Dong Silver dissenting.

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    1. Quote the finding. Word for word. Don’t leave anything out.
      #btw,NotAwareOfAnyProponentsFor”ThinkingAboutIt”Rule

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      1. Here is the entire finding word for word.
        Trump eats pig shit after putting ketchup on it That’s all he ever eats. Period.

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  8. I have complimented and criticized LR.He had a great yr coaching SC to an 11-1 record and victories of 2 biggest rivals. He coached SC into the Pac12 playoff but lost again to utah. He blew the end of the cotton bowl on both the kickoff reception and the 2 runs at the 1 yd line and resulting safety. A large part of the loss was also special teams which have stunk all year.Only a moron moment would cause him to say lets do it that way again…he made that stupid remark.
    BTW I said this on 247’s site and they blacklisted me, I am not allowed to comment any longer…I cancelled my subscription after years of membership.They must be a ‘woke’ joint or fanboys as wolfie calls it.

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  9. Riley held extended press conferences last off-season and pre-season. The amount and quality of information that Riley disseminates is so much better than Helton’s word salad blather and cliches.

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  10. The University of Southern California USC has Full Control of GRINCH… Grinch is on a Contract… If Uhave any Common Sense grinch was never going to be Fired…

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    1. But if USC piss Riley off then there’s three teams who will hire him for the NFL. Chargers, Cowboys, Texans. Saints might fire their coach to get Riley.

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  12. In his twilight, Al Michaels’ emotionless announcing is now on par with USC announcer Pete Abunchogass…

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  13. In his twilight, Al Michaels’ emotionless announcing is now on par with USC announcer Pete Abunchogass…

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  16. My problem with LR is that, apparently, he doesn’t have the guts to make the hard decisions. You should not be feeling sorry for anyone making a million a year(like our DC). He’ll find another job, probably with a pay cut but that pay cut will still pay $500,000 to one million so he and his family won’t miss out on the nice expensive foods that he can put on his kitchen table.
    If you are going to pay a guy a million a year, he should be expected to get some results. Last years defense was one of the worst we have had in years. Had Jackson Dart(or any good QB) been our QB last year we would have gone 5-7.
    Caleb carried this team. We seen that when he got hurt in the Utah game and all of a sudden Utah outscored us 44-7 for the rest of the game. Our defense was the worst we have had in maybe 30 years or more……maybe ever!!!! It let us down all year long.
    Grinch is somewhat like Clay Helton. There is nothing on either one of their resumes that says that either of these guys are good at what they do.
    As a head coach, you must sometimes make hard decisions. Last year Alabama was 11th nationally offensively and 15th nationally defensively. Nick Saban recently fired both his OC and DC.
    Having said that, I still say that we are in better hands than when under CH. At least this guy is a offensive wiz even if he doesn’t seem to care about defense.

    Liked by 1 person

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