After the Ducks handed the Trojans their first loss of the season, the spotlight quickly shifted towards Lincoln Riley. Longtime USC fan Colin Cowherd took to X to lament that the head coach has yet to fix the defense, even though this is his fifth year at the program. ESPN’s Paul Finebaum went a little extra in his criticism of the USC head coach.

“I will tell you right now: Lincoln Riley is not an elite coach,” Finebaum said during The Matt Barrie Show on September 27. “He is not a coach capable of turning a program like Southern Cal around. I think he’s a good coach. He was a better coach at Oklahoma than the Oklahoma fans now believe. For the bottom feeders, I just think there’s nothing Lincoln Riley does that impresses me.”

Given how Brent Venables’ team has started the 2026 campaign, any Oklahoma fan would want to have the Riley years back. During his tenure at Norman, Riley won multiple Big 12 championships and had three CFP appearances. However, Venables is coaching in the SEC, a far tougher conference than the one Riley had.

But his success at Norman was what the USC administration wanted him to replicate in Southern California when they got him for a 10-year, $110 million contract in 2021. So far, it’s been a mixed bag. Forget winning the conference title; USC hasn’t even made it to the playoffs under Riley.

Riley’s position as a head coach was already on a hot seat when he entered the season. However, USC started on a high note with three impressive wins. But in their Week 3 outing against Rutgers, the defense gave up 465 yards in the 42-35 win. That should have been a red flag.

Unlike Rutgers, Oregon was always going to punish Riley’s team. Despite playing at home, USC lost 27-41, and once again, the defense allowed the Ducks to have 505 yards on offense. To make matters worse, Oregon didn’t even have its starting QB for a majority of the game.

Dante Moore was ruled out of the game after a late hit by a USC linebacker in the second quarter of the game. Nebraska transfer Dylan Raiola came in and threw for 289 yards and two touchdowns.

For every fan, the game was like deja vu. It was similar to every Riley loss that they have seen. The offense keeps humming, but the defense fails to get stops. And when the offense eventually stalls, the other team takes a lead. It was like Lanning had a blueprint of how to take down a USC team.

Riley now has a 5-15 record against ranked teams. But more than the performance, the behavior of USC players after the Moore incident also reflected the discipline of the team. After his hit, Desman Stephens II was seen celebrating while Moore was left unconscious. He was even smiling after getting a penalty.

After the game, Dan Lanning did not hold back on his words and called out the Trojans. “Three wins against these guys,” he said, via Max Torres of Scoop Duck. “I guess if you’re interested in winning football games, you’re from this area; you should go to Oregon. You want to go to a Chris Brown concert; you should go here.”

Finebaum viewed Lanning’s comments as a clear indication that Riley is losing the respect he once had when he was with the Sooners.

“But that, in essence, almost ended Lincoln Riley’s season, by one of his peers and a guy that used to be trying to become Lincoln Riley,” Finebaum added on the podcast.