FOOTBALL

What On Earth Did We Just Watch?

How many different ways can Lincoln Riley snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?

He is letting the seconds burn off the clock in the final 45 seconds with the ball on the Penn State 45-yard line while holding three timeouts. All in the name of setting up a 45-50 yard FG at the end?

Except, that meant his erratic QB would have to throw a good pass on third down, which he did not.

We already knew clock management is not Riley’s specialty. He also botched it at the end of the first half when USC settled for a field goal.

  • Penn State arrived at the Coliseum ready to lose and fell behind 20-6 at halftime. But did they expect that the defense would refuse to cover tight end Tyler Warren, who had 17 catches for 224 yards?

USC has played football since 1888 and no one caught 17 passes before today. The previous record was 16 catches by Dalton Kincaid in 2022.

So Riley teams allowed the two-best individual performances by an opposing receiver.

But you can’t blame Alex Grinch today. Blame D’Anton Lynn, who the fans anointed as a savior. Not only did Lynn fail to have anyone cover Warren, his defense didn’t cover tailback Nick Singleton on the 14-yard TD pass that sent the game into overtime.

  • Riley wanted to run the ball today because he was (rightly) terrified of the Penn State pass rush against Miller Moss.

But sooner or later, you have to pass. And Moss came up short on a lot of big plays. It’s Riley’s fault, however, because he stubbornly refuses to give Jayden Maiava a chance.

  • Riley is 5-8 in his past 13 games.
  • Riley is 3-7 vs. Top 25 teams at USC.
  • The excuses are over. No one wants to hear them from Riley.
  • It’s time for him to go. The End.

37 thoughts on “What On Earth Did We Just Watch?”

    1. this madness has to stop- I cannot watch this incompetence any further- is he trying to lose games to get out of SC? Is he purposely trying look like a complete clown? Can someone please kidnap his a$$ so we no longer have to suffer?

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  4. SC shoul hold a press conference and apologize for blowing up the Pac~12. The idea that they were “too big” for the conference is indeed a laughable one.

    SC has more blood on its hands than the Manson family.

    What a disgrace!

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    3. I was going to say the same thing. Ironically, the old PAC 12 teams are arguably the best group of teams this year pound for pound, if we were still a conference, no thanks to USC. Too bad Folt and some of the BoT folks aren’t up for election by alum. Imagine.

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    1. Someone who is willing to recruit locally, will EMBRACE the tradition of USC and it’s alumni and fans.

      SC has a former head coach on it’s staff now, he won NC’s, maybe Entz is the guy.

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    2. Even my high school coach knows you don’t let the clock run down to 14 seconds without calling a time out when you could drive for a touchdown or easy chip shot field goal.

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  7. I’ll blame D’Anton Lynn when he’s losing with players he recruited. As far as Riley being over his head- that I cannot deny.

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    1. I agree, the defensive staff inherited players who were underweight per the choice of the previous DC as wellasbeingpoorlycoached.

      That being said, this is ALL on Riley for not recruiting either line, not firing his incompetent DC sooner, not firing his incompetent OL coach and his absolute reluctance to embrace USC’s tradition, alums, ex players and fans in anyway.

      And shame on the athletic department for allowing Riley to blow off alums, ex players and the fans.

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  8. USC will never fire LR. They have 70M reasons not to. So best to move on to Sunday football for the next 7 years and save yourself the grief.

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    1. Just think, Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer and Bill Belichick are all begging for another coaching job and we keep Mr. On The Spectrum.

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      2. I have no doubt that there are good coaches out there available to help. Carroll, Gruden, Belichick, etc. But the problem is the University will not pay the buyout for LR. They would rather sit on it until the contract is over. It took them forever to fire Clay Helton even when everyone knew years in advance that he was going to take the program nowhere. In my opinion, LR has done a worse job than CH because Helton didn’t have the benefit of the transfer portal. LR has done an abismal job plugging in the holes where subpar play is evident. More notably the offensive line. But remember that the offense is LR side of the ball. He is supposed to be a genius on everything offense. But the OL, clock management, play calling, in-game adjustments are very bad. He sucks at all of them. In the end, the University gave a bad coach a 10 yr contract but the contract is just as bad as the coach himself. And we, the faithful, are stuck with the second coming of Clay Helton for years to come. The pertinent authorities should pull the school of business license to teach kids just for signing this horrible contract. I mean what are we teaching these kids.

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  9. Has anyone noticed how bad replay review officiating and everything involved with it has been in this year. Be it reviews that should be overturned with evidence not over turned or ones overturned with out evidence or even obvious reviewable situations not even reviewed. It strikes again with Oregon v Osu and no review on an obvious turn over ruled a completion. Add that to Miami v Va Tech, Miami v Cal, michigan v Usc (multiple times), michigan v Minnisota. Now Osu v Oregon. Now I’m not a conspiracy guy but in all these cases the conference favorite or possible playoff expectee from the big 10 and acc has benefited from these calls or lack of reviews and these reviews come from within the conference headquarters where their review centers are. Follow the money, they are trying to preserve the top teams to get as many in the playoffs as possible for financial purposes. This seems to be the only explanation. It is the non reviewed reviewable plays that are the most annoying since all are looked at and the buzzers should be hit, then it is either a lack of evidence that still flips a call or evidence that the call is wrong yet the call stands. Seems like the fix is in

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    1. When we were ahead 20-6 I thought Penn State would implode and we would see a good old fashioned SC thrashing of another Big Ten team. That game was so demoralizing that Lawyer John and MG both haven’t recovered yet.

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  11. Stinkin Piley was the wrong hire and is a fraud. I’ve said it from the jump, and detailed why and how it would go. So did a lot of other folks. USC has been making bad decisions for the same bad reasons by the same bad actors for a long time now. It’s amazing how strong and resilient the brand is that its still a thing. Even as an alum I’m worn out. But CFB is in a screwy place now, so maybe some wondrous changes can come sooner than expected.

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