FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: Don’t Fall For Lincoln Riley Spin Merchants

My blood pressure will be lower today not having to rely on the decision making of Lincoln Riley and D’Anton Lynn.

But I want to address what the Pretzel Crew says about USC. The who? The Pretzel Crew. These are the people who twist themselves into a pretzel to rationalize and defend Riley and USC, despite shocking performances at Illinois and Notre Dame.

They say not to worry because this is really Year 2, not Year 4 of Riley at USC.

The spin is that Riley has had to completely rebuild the program and you can’t count the first two years when Caleb Williams and Co. had success in Year 1 and USC was supposedly still relying too much on transfers in Year 2. You see, Riley had to start over in Year 3, so it’s really Year 1.

If that is true, and I don’t buy it, then USC should still have aggressively brought in transfers because it got to the Pac-12 title game the first season.

Anyways, here’s my question. Is Marcus Freeman in Year 2 at Notre Dame? Is Dan Lanning in Year 2 at Oregon?

Curt Cignetti is in real Year 2 at Indiana. Didn’t he have a bigger rebuild than Riley?

None of those three coaches require a full-time staff of spin merchants and carnival barkers to try and make Freeman, Lanning and Cignetti more palatable to their fans. They are all leaders of men. Riley is not.

62 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Don’t Fall For Lincoln Riley Spin Merchants”

    1. Lincoln is a fine QB coach —who knows nothing about any other aspect of football —I watched “QB Unfiltered” on YouTube & it was a real eyeopener: the former coach pinpointed all the serious, multiple and head scratching problems we’re having on the o-line…

      #..NoWonderMaiavaCan’tConnectOnBigPassesWhenWeGetBehind…

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      1. I haven’t turned a game off since 2016 ‘Bama, when I just couldn’t take it anymore. I’m hoping this won’t be another…

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      6. The gutties only lost by 50. It hasn’t been that bad since they lost to us, 50-0. Barkley threw 6 TDs. I can remember it like yesterday…

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      7. I have to be honest, ’67. I hated that game. Talk about a snoozer.

        I actually prefer to have them winning the entire game and coming back in the last 5 minutes to win it! Rip their hearts out, after letting them think they had it in the bag. Their fans stay ’til the end and have to walk out all at one time, with their sad faces.

        That 50-0 game, they started leaving a little at a time in the middle of the 3rd quarter. Hardly any of them left mid way through the 4th.

        50-0 was like beating up on a girl. A certain someone might get satisfaction in that. But most of us would not.

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      8. hey mg that game today was Fd up from the start a pick 6 on the 2nd play of the game and the offensive game plan was terrible everything right up the middle and QB sitting in the pocket absolutely nothing outside on the perimeter 😡

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      10. KAM: Hey Tranny bruin, here’s a joke that will cheer you up…

        DON:

        🚨

        JUST IN: Kamala Harris declares to America that she’s “not done” and might run for president in 2028 to quash the MAGA movement.

        😂

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  3. trump said he’s going to lower drug prices by 1000%

    STILL LAUGHING MY AZZ*****OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. KAM : Cowardly Gabby said she was going to fight Plow Horse and chickened out!

      Plow Horse

      February 3, 2025 at 2:47 am

      If there is one thing we can be certain of regarding Cowardly Gabby’s threats, he will never back them up. All talk, no walk – the blog pu**y

      DON: STILL LAUGHING MY AZZ*****OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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      4. KAM: MG, think how bitter Cowardly Gabby aka Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka TebowObama aka The Guy who posts as So Cal’s Wife & Michael Guarino & Buddhakarma &LawyerJohn & Pudly & Plow Horse & steveg49 & DOJ & Scott Wolf & Kathy & Foreskin Thoughts & Frank Young is after that Beatdown in Bloomington today!

        DON: She was feeling so good about her Bruins she actually reverted to her somewhat human Charlie Bucket persona this week.

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  4. DON: Looks like we are 0 for 2 for the day with ucla not wishing to save face and Kiffin still in the running for the Playoffs

    KAM: Not sure how good Oklahoma is but looks like Kiff is going to get the best of them

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  5. The old Pac 12 teams continue getting hosed on penalties in the Big Ten — case in point: Washington vs. Illinois in play right now.

    The Big Ten officiating crews consciously or unconsciously try to protect the REAL Big Ten teams from the coastal usurpers….

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      1. Big Ten banners hanging over every tunnel of every stadium of every original Big Ten Team: “Pac 12 Newcomers: “You’re Not Welcome Here.”

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      3. KAM: Poor Tranny Bruin and Owns actually thought they had a chance against #2 Indiana today!

        DON: Then the UCLA punter tried that bonehead fake punt and the game was over.

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    1. Loser teams find a way to lose, So Cal —watching the games slip thru the fingers of teams playing Alabama and Texas [with big leads going into the 4th quarter] was, unfortunately, so predictable….. they didn’t know how to close the deal…

      #TheSecret:StayOnTheAttack…Don’tGoIntoAShell

      #…NowTheyGetToCryInTheirBeer

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    1. YEAH….THIS ONE HAS TO BE TOUGH ON WESTWOOD FANS EVERYWHERE…..IT PROBABLY ENDS ANY CHANCE THE BRUINS HAVE OF MAKING THE PLAYOFFS….

      #HAPPENS EVERYTIME A TEAM LOSES BY 50

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  10. LSU was up 18-14, but gives up 28 straight points in the 3rd quarter to A&M, now down 42-18 in the 4th. Kelly looks incompetent, screaming at his assistants, having no idea what to do, looking like he will be gone at the end of the season. Buy out is something like $25 million.

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  11. KAM:-So the ucla quarterback starts the game by throwing an interception for a touchdown, 7-0 Indiana. And from the Hoosiers faces all of the drama of the game had vanished, and now the team would just be playing it for laughs all the way to 56-points

    DON: And that Indiana coach wanted 63-points as he had his quarterback still throwing in ucla’s territory. Maybe he wanted to tie his record of 63-points against Illinois

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    1. KAM: Senile Joe Biden spent the last weeks of his re-election meltdown dodging phone calls—not from reporters or donors, but from Barack Hussein Obama himself. For two full weeks before he finally bailed out last July, Senile Joe Biden reportedly refused to take his old boss’s calls, like how John Robinson dodged Mike Garret’s calls before he was fired..And get this: even after he quit, he gave Obama the cold shoulder for another month.

      Senile Joe Biden’s bitterness boiled over after word spread that Barack Hussein Obama’s team quietly nudged George Clooney to write that July 10, 2024, New York Times hit piece urging him to bow out after his train-wreck debate against Donald Trump.

      “Obama reached out again after Biden suspended his campaign, but the two men would not end up speaking until shortly before the Democratic National Convention four weeks later.”

      The Oscar-winning actor had declared in the scathing piece that Biden “cannot win” less than a month after co-hosting a fundraiser that brought in some $30 million for the Democratic ticket, but was overshadowed by Biden freezing up during the event and having to be led offstage by Obama.

      “Obama had been trying to get in touch with Biden for about two weeks, but his calls had not been returned,” ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl writes in an excerpt from his upcoming book “Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America” that was published by the Dispatch on Friday and detailed the 48 hours before Biden announced he was leaving the race.

      DON: President Joe Biden wasn’t just ignoring calls from his former boss, Barack Obama—he also snubbed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the very Democrat leading the charge to push him out of the race.

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  12. KAM: Isn’t it great for us to be frolicking along as free as a bird-

    DON: Well sometimes this ‘bird’ feels caged

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    1. KAM: Psychotherapist Reveals the Politically Incorrect Reason Why the Silly “No Kings” Rallies Mostly Consisted of ‘Educated’ White Women

      Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert has come forward with a politically incorrect reason to explain this interesting phenomenon: these women are likely suffering mental health disorders.

      To back up his argument, he said middle-aged, educated women consume more mental health services than any other demographic group.

      “40-something women are probably the biggest demographic of consumers of mental health services, probably twenties to forties.”

      Alpert added that he saw the protests as an airing of grievances as a form of ‘group therapy.’ Rather than looking to change the course of events, the women were looking to find like-minded individuals with whom they could throw a tantrum with.

      “The ‘No Kings’ protests, from what I’ve seen in person and on TV, it seems to me like a big venting session. It’s almost like a big group therapy,” he told Fox News. “So, people get stuff off their chest and they feel better in the moment, but it doesn’t necessarily bring about any sort of positive change.”

      DON: Alpert went on to say that these people are leading boring, unhappy lives and are desperate to find a sort of ouytlet to express their insecurities.

      “A lot of times people are unhappy in their own lives,” he stated. “They may have anxiety or anger, and they project that onto others. That’s partly what we’re seeing play out at these rallies.”

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  13. DON: Miller Moss is doing very well in his new home at Louisville, which raises the question, would SC be a better ‘fit today with Moss than with Maiava?

    KAM: Miller’s mother said her son was not given a “fair shake,” but you know how us women are, over-emotional

    DON: I never said that, you’re not quoting me

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    1. KAM: It appears Miller’s mother spoke the truth. Louisville has a better head coach.

      DON: Miller was blamed for the crummy OL that had him running for his life every play last season.

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  14. KAM: You know how some football teams have a mystique about them, they know how to win with style, I’d put Alabama right up there

    DON: Notre Dame too. And SC in the Carrot days

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    1. KAM: Katie Porter’s Ex Just Broke His Silence And… Yikes!

      He claimed in divorce papers that in 2006, Porter exploded over the way he was making mashed potatoes, snapping, “Can’t you read the f—ing instructions!” before raising a “ceramic bowl of steaming hot potatoes and dumped it on my head, burning my scalp,” according to Hoffman’s account in court papers.

      DON: Sounds like Cowardly Gabby!

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  15. KAM: Not to be mean, but it has been said of you what this Oliver Holmes’ poem says– “Thou, oh my country, hast thy foolish ways/Too apt to purr at every stranger’s praise”

    DON: He’s talking about America there, but I get your point

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    1. KAM: Congrats on presiding over the signing of a peace agreement you brokered between Cambodia and Thailand this morning.

      DON “Just spoke to the Acting Prime Minister of Thailand and Prime Minister of Cambodia. I am pleased to announce that, after the involvement of President Donald J. Trump, both Countries have reached a CEASEFIRE and PEACE… I am proud to be the President of PEACE!”

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  16. DON: College football fans everywhere are up in arms over their team’s performance. At LSU last night they were chanting about their coach during a game “Fire Kelly.” The Ohio St coach was catching it from Buckeyes’ fans when losing to Michigan 4-straight.

    KAM: But winning last year’s National title bailed him out. And now look at Wiley, I wonder if he is thinking like this, ‘Darn it all but we were just one-play away from winning the Illinois and ND games

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  17. DON: Yeah, “one play away” from winning. The one play SC needed in the Illinois game was to block the winning field goal attempt. That is the ‘one play’ Wiley needed

    KAM: At Notre Dame Wiles would have to subtract his ‘one play,’ the SC fumble at the end

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      1. I REALLY share your frustration, old buddy —- but…. I’ve come to the conclusion that: It is not a bad team… it is a terrified & weak coach…who actually starts calling plays as if he’s Don Knotts [starring as Mr. or Mrs. Limpet] in close games. You need to be cool as ice calling plays in the 4th quarter of tight games — not suffering panic attacks.

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      2. P. S.

        More and more former coaches doing podcasts are coming to the conclusion that Riley is the Little Lord Fauntleroy of the coaching profession —who doesn’t like to be touched or spoken to during the week….and is estranged from the team during the game….and falls apart when ‘down & dirty’ time comes [resulting in last minute loss after last minute loss after…. etc., etc]

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