“Going from the absolute latest kick in the country to the absolute earliest kick in the country has its challenges,” Lincoln Riley had a built in excuse during practice. “We don’t make the schedule. Clearly.” That’s the problem, though. Complaining about kickoff times doesn’t change the fact that USC Trojans were outplayed in Champaign. The Trojans entered as the No. 21 team in the country, only to fall flat in a 34-32 loss to No. 23 Illinois. Sure, the scheduling grind is real, but as Illinois showed, it’s also not an excuse. Bret Bielema’s group came in battered from a humiliating blowout loss at Indiana and still found a way to flip the script.

On his show, Dan Patrick didn’t dilly dally, pointing directly at the optics Lincoln Riley created. “Lincoln Riley complained about the start time for this. You sign up for the Big Ten, you’re probably going to play some of these games. And they played pretty well, but I don’t think you can go into a game and already have an excuse why you might not play well.” That’s a national host spelling out the obvious. Complaining before the whistle even rings makes the postgame excuses appear even louder.

Rick Neuheisel, the former UCLA coach and CBS analyst, went a step further. He understood the grind of coast-to-coast travel, but still called Riley’s approach ill-advised. “It doesn’t do well to talk about it publicly. I think that there should be a little bit more protection for West Coast teams that are traveling. And maybe you say it can only happen once a year. But the bottom line is you’re right, it only looks like you’re whining and that’s not a good look for Lincoln whose team was off to a good start and just a couple ill-advised turnovers in this game were the difference. It was a great job by Bret Bielema to get his team off the mat after being bludgeoned by Indiana the week previous.” You enter a game with a losing mentality, you will lose. It is that simple. Illinois’ coach didn’t blame the kickoff time. He was focused on the play at hand.

The time slot shuffle was brutal, no doubt. Last week, USC was on the field at 11 p.m. Eastern in Los Angeles against Michigan State. Seven days later, they were in Illinois for a noon Eastern kick. That’s a 13-hour swing across time zones, and players feel it in their bodies. But Illinois had the same early window, and they answered the call. The Trojans keep stumbling in these road scenarios, which explains why the 4-0 dream start now feels like a shaky 4-1.

Joel Klatt pointed out another piece that Lincoln Riley can’t chalk up to scheduling. Injuries. USC limped into this one, literally. “Then, you show up to a game and there’s just a ton of injuries. Kamari Ramsey, out at safety and he’s their best defensive back. Sure enough, they didn’t play well in the secondary. Elijah Paige can’t go at left tackle. Then you lose Kilian O’Connor at center and you’re down two offensive linemen. It becomes a different game. That team that I saw on film, I largely didn’t see on the field on Saturday, in part because the style of game that played out.” When you’re patching holes in real time, no kickoff hour is going to save you. The good news? It is only September. Injuries are a part of the game. It is good to have these bruises now so the team can learn to adapt rather than have a crucial one in the latter half of the season.

USC and Lincoln Riley need to adjust to the new Big Ten life

For USC, this is now the new normal. The Pac-12 is gone, and now the Troys are living in full Big Ten mode. Cross-country flights, odd start times, and body clocks that never quite settle. It’s a grind, and Riley knows it. He talked about walking the line between pushing his team and not burning them out before that Illinois trip.

“We’ve had to adapt a little bit in the way that we’ve prepared and how much that we’ve done … It compounds if you’re not careful,” Riley said. “We’ve tried to be mindful of getting our work done but at the same time knowing that we need to put a fresh football team on that airplane.” Riley is aware of the fact that the schedule is out of their hands. The Trojans had just recently survived a marathon three-hour weather delay against Purdue at West Lafayette. Truth be told, this isn’t the first logistical issue USC has faced since joining the Big Ten. Just take a look at last season’s schedule.

It included late games against Michigan, Minnesota, and Maryland, all challenging due to time zone differences. This season, long road trips mean the team will rack up thousands of miles. They are averaging 1,336 miles per game, with stops in South Bend (Notre Dame), Champaign (Illinois), and Ann Arbor( Michigan). At this point, you have to feel for Lincoln Riley.

The problem is, there’s no sympathy in this league. With No. 20 Michigan on deck in a 4:30 p.m. PT kickoff, the excuses should be gone. Only results should speak for the team.