Even with ticket prices dropping down to fast-food levels, USC just could not get fans into seats for their game this weekend. The Trojans were taking heat on two fronts: a half-empty stadium and head coach Lincoln Riley refusing to accept that fan support was dropping fast.

After the game, Lincoln Riley suggested that the media and opponents were executing a smear campaign against the Trojans by using the lack of fan attendance. Dan Lanning, who is leading the Oregon Ducks in yet another national title run, couldn’t help but scoff at the proposition and took a dig at a spiraling Riley. 

“I guess when the Ducks show up, that’s how you fill up the Coliseum,” the Oregonian’s Bill Oram reported Lanning saying. “Three wins against these guys. I guess if you’re interested in winning football games from this area, you should go to Oregon instead of going to a Chris Brown concert.”

Lanning’s jab hits USC where it hurts most, and that’s their recruiting and College Football Playoff dreams. Top California high school stars want to play in loud, packed stadiums for national titles, not half-empty venues. By stealing top local talent right out of Los Angeles, Oregon is locking up its spot at the top while USC falls further behind in the conference race.

Also, Lanning has every right to talk big. Since taking over Oregon, he has built a powerhouse that consistently stays in the national championship race, while Riley’s Trojans keep slipping in the Big Ten standings. With three wins over USC, Lanning is not just throwing random shade, but rather speaking as the undisputed king of West Coast football.

However, the Ducks head coach is not the only one pointing fingers at the half-empty stands. College football writers like CJ Vogel and Brooks Austin also posted pictures of the bare bleachers online, calling the scene straight-up embarrassing for a big program like USC. When sports journalists and national media start calling out your home crowd, it shows that people outside LA are watching the downfall closely.

On Saturday, the Coliseum was brimming with passionate fans (a video of a fight breaking out has now gone viral) who set up a different scene from the Trojans’ Week 4 game. The X post, made on September 27, summarizes how the 41-27 Week 4 win panned out for Lanning and his squad. 

USC came into this match with a solid record, but for a top-tier program, just winning small games is not enough. When a historic stadium that holds over 77,000 fans struggles to fill seats, the pressure falls straight on the head coach.

Riley tried to brush off the complaints, saying people outside the program just do not understand the reality. “This is USC; people are going to have an opinion,” Riley said. He argued that most critics throwing mud have never even walked inside the Coliseum.

Calling the crowd complaints a smear campaign shows how defensive Lincoln Riley has become about the issue. While everyone else sees a legendary program struggling to fill its home seats, Riley acts like the empty stands are just fake news created by rivals to hurt his team.

Local traffic and hot weather are weak excuses when rival programs are filling stadiums every weekend. If Riley cannot fix the atmosphere at the Coliseum, Lanning and the Ducks will keep taking California’s best recruits straight to Eugene.