USC recruiting and everything else

zelezo vlk

zelezo vlk

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Saw this comment on the r/CFB thread about if Lincoln Riley gets fired. I hope this is true

I'll just piggyback on this but there's almost no way we're firing Riley as much as I would like to see it too. There are several reasons:

1) USC just finished off paying a whole bunch of lawsuits (that's a different issue but one involved our former medical school dean partying in a hotel room with meth or something lol)

2) We just got a new president who is already on shaky ground since he was an interim to permanent position which in itself means he has to maintain support of the rank-and-file faculty to keep his position. Which leads me to the third point

3) At the end of the day, academics are USC's main thing (as is the case with any other university). We just laid off several faculty and laying off anymore for a football coach will lead to even more faculty (who are invaluable for receiving actual big money research grants) being laid off. Which in turn leads to the new president losing support from the faculty

4) I hate to parrot the "number one recruiting class" thing but if we did fire him now, we'd immediately lose them and be in another five-year ditch before being remotely competitive again. Riley has his deep flaws but he recruits very well. He just can't coach them for shit

Until Riley's buyout becomes substantially lower, we will be stuck with him for at least two more years. It sucks but this is simply the financial reality of things and even though USC has a lot of donors, they've also seen USC pay off coaches and hire another one who somehow ends up being even more shit
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MPClinton22

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zelezo vlk said:
Saw this comment on the r/CFB thread about if Lincoln Riley gets fired. I hope this is true
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Point 4 is nonsense. With the portal, no coach should have a 4 year runway for recruiting reasons - immediate turnarounds should be expected from great coaches. They clearly are just coping with the fact that they aren’t all that relevant in the current era, and their admin is too inept to fix it.
 
OKCDomer23

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He can't win the big game at USC and his defenses suck. Entertaining product but hasn't come through. Lack of belief. USC in the Big 10 will always be an odd fit and just don't think his program is physical enough. Chesney and the monster he is building at UCLA are waiting for him.
 
zelezo vlk

zelezo vlk

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MPClinton22 said:
Point 4 is nonsense. With the portal, no coach should have a 4 year runway for recruiting reasons - immediate turnarounds should be expected from great coaches. They clearly are just coping with the fact that they aren’t all that relevant in the current era, and their admin is too inept to fix it.
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Well yeah agreed on that, but hey if the SC administration is convinced it's true and they need to keep Riley....
 
IrishLax

IrishLax

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Valpodoc85 said:
Makes you wonder how much control LR has over his team...
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Something I heard years ago was that the way he runs practice basically guarantees that they will always be bad at defense and soft. He structures everything around offensive execution and will rep stuff "until the offense gets it right." Basically none of what he does is about building toughness, culture, fundamentals on defense, etc. That's why every single team he has assumed control of has gotten worse on that side of the ball over time regardless of who the coach is, and it's also why that DC he hired years ago for big $$ noped out of there for a lateral move as soon as possible. Riley literally does not understand any part of actually running a football ball program or being a leader of men, at his core he's just an Xs and Os coordinator (and an overrated one at that).
 
Bane

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IrishLax said:
Something I heard years ago was that the way he runs practice basically guarantees that they will always be bad at defense and soft. He structures everything around offensive execution and will rep stuff "until the offense gets it right." Basically none of what he does is about building toughness, culture, fundamentals on defense, etc. That's why every single team he has assumed control of has gotten worse on that side of the ball over time regardless of who the coach is, and it's also why that DC he hired years ago for big $$ noped out of there for a lateral move as soon as possible. Riley literally does not understand any part of actually running a football ball program or being a leader of men, at his core he's just an Xs and Os coordinator (and an overrated one at that).
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And this totally jives with the eye test so I absolutely believe it. Lane Kiffin tends to have those same sorts of problems on his teams, so I believe he probably runs things in a similar manner.
 
OKCDomer23

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ulukinatme said:
This is bullshit. Moore is probably out for at least the next game, maybe longer. Oregon has to face a ranked UCLA team without him probably. Who does USC have to play while they'll be missing Stephens? A 3-1 Washington team that just lost to Minnie and hasn't looked particularly super.
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It is agree. Does anyone really think USC is a real playoff threat? I don't. Lincoln fooled America again last night thinking he could win a big game at USC. He can't not even against a backup qb after his team committed a disgusting play. Opposing fans should be aware this is the predictable, bs reaction for USC to try to save face.
 
ulukinatme

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OKCDomer23 said:
It is agree. Does anyone really think USC is a real playoff threat? I don't. Lincoln fooled America again last night thinking he could win a big game at USC. He can't not even against a backup qb after his team committed a disgusting play. Opposing fans should be aware this is the predictable, bs reaction for USC to try to save face.
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Right? If USC was facing OSU or someone they weren't heavily favored to beat I doubt Stephens even misses a game.
 
Jiggafini19Deux

Jiggafini19Deux

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Brazen behavior simply doesn't surprise me anymore. It wasn't the hit. It was everything that happened afterwards. "Yeah, not only did I do this in plain sight, but now I'm going to celebrate it and double down on it."

Par for the course in 2026. Trash before class.

Zero fucks given, a coward coach in the press conference afterwards and a forced apology that was without a doubt written by someone in sports information. They are what they are.
 
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