Lincoln Riley’s reputation as an offensive genius is becoming harder to defend. His USC offense was an outright embarrassment against Wisconsin, as the then-No. 16 Trojans suffered a humiliating 24-7 defeat despite holding the Badgers to just 200 yards. The loss knocked USC out of the AP Top 25, exposing an ugly irony: the coach celebrated for explosive offenses couldn’t get his own team to score more than seven points.
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Speaking on his Trojans Live radio show, Riley acknowledged that he’d underestimated his defense’s performance.
“We played a little bit better defensively than probably I gave credit for after the game,” he said, according to Shotgun Spratling. “You hold somebody down to 200 yards of offense, you should win football games. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a loss when we’ve held somebody to 200 yards or less.”
“I thought defensively we dominated maybe 90 percent of the plays in the game,” he added.
However, Riley’s praise came with a damning assessment of the offense and special teams.
“It was a good solid performance defensively, but we kind of backed that up with our worst offensive and special teams performance of the year,” Riley admitted. “And that equation on the road against a good football team is just not going to get it done.”
USC finished with minus-17 rushing yards after Wisconsin sacked quarterback Jayden Maiava five times for a combined loss of 57 yards. The offensive line’s struggles left Urban Meyer and Mark Ingram stunned.
“And I mean, getting their a– kicked at the line of scrimmage by Wisconsin,” Meyer said.
“Minus 17 rushing yards,” Ingram added.
“What the s—?” Meyer responded.
Riley’s teams have struggled with offensive consistency before. Against Penn State in 2024, USC squandered a 20-6 halftime lead and lost 33-30 in overtime, despite limiting the Nittany Lions to 118 rushing yards. Last season, the Trojans needed strong defensive performances to survive Nebraska 21-17 and Iowa 26-21.
The Wisconsin defeat, however, marked the lowest-scoring game of Riley’s head-coaching career. Maiava threw two interceptions, while USC had a 44-yard field-goal attempt blocked and missed another from 58 yards after a delay-of-game penalty.
Now, Riley has to address those failures before No. 2 Ohio State visits Los Angeles on October 31. The Buckeyes face quarterback uncertainty following Julian Sayin’s injury, but their defensive front presents another serious challenge for USC’s struggling offensive line.
“Good team. No doubt. Explosive offensively. Got a lot of playmakers there,” Riley said. “We’ll see how the QB situation plays out. They’ve played well defensively. Definitely one of the biggest fronts we’ve seen. It’ll take a complete game to beat them.”
With Indiana, Maryland and UCLA still ahead, USC has little room for another setback. Wisconsin exposed serious problems in pass protection, rushing production and execution. If those issues persist against Ohio State, Riley will face even tougher questions about his ability to turn USC into a championship contender.