Things are getting heated up in USC football, and Athletic Director Jennifer Cohen spoke plainly in an exclusive interview. She addressed the fan backlash and “doom and gloom” mood around the program without holding back. When asked about Lincoln Riley’s 2025 season, where USC fell short of playoff expectations, Cohen admitted the past year has been deeply frustrating.

When asked about Lincoln Riley’s 2025 football campaign and falling just short of playoff expectations, Cohen openly admitted that this past year has been deeply frustrating:

“There’s no doubt that this last year’s been frustrating, and that’s because we tried to fly a plane and build a plane at the same time. So it’s certainly not going swimmingly, right?” Cohen said to the LA Times last week.

Inside USC circles, the question isn’t whether Riley will be fired, but whether the $90 million buyout makes firing him impossible. ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg labeled Riley’s situation “it’s going to cost us,” noting four years without a playoff appearance or conference title. If USC misses the 2026 College Football Playoff, that would be five straight seasons under Riley without postseason success. At that point, Los Angeles columnist Arash Markazi says patience will evaporate: “If Riley fails to guide USC to the playoff next year, he will likely be dismissed.”

She explained that the athletic department has basically been trying to do all: rebuilding their entire defensive coaching staff, shifting their recruiting philosophy, and constructing a giant, state-of-the-art physical facility- at once, while complying with the ever-changing world of NIL. Not to mention, it has never been more expensive to run a major athletic department. The cost of building a top football roster has now climbed past $40 million for this season alone.

A big reason for that is because of the rise of NIL deals, collective fundraising, and their revenue-sharing payments for athletes.

Things are moving so fast that the reporter even asked her about a nightmare future scenario: what happens if roster costs keep ballooning to $50 million, $60 million, or even a mind-boggling $100 million for a single year of football?

The $100 million roster cost isn’t theoretical to USC boosters already questioning the return on investment. Riley’s 10-year, $110 million contract, negotiated by former AD Mike Bohn, not Cohen, has idolaters worried. Fans and insiders are asking whether spending wildly guarantees wins or just drains resources faster. One insider told CBS Sports the 2026 high school recruiting class alone cost nearly $9 million in NIL commitments, front-loaded to lock in talent. That’s the trap Cohen warned about: spend to compete, or get left behind.

“Hopefully not,” Cohen said. “We’ve gotta match roster spends with revenues and, and, and, and how we run a business,” Cohen said. “I don’t think there’s one simple answer to this, and I do think that we are at a point where we’ve got to figure out as an industry, how do we do this in a smart way and not just let our competitiveness get the best of us? But that’s hard when football winning is the only way that you pay your bills.”

The ultimate trap, as Cohen pointed out, is that winning football games is pretty much the only way a university can generate enough cash to pay its bills, creating a crazy loop where you have to spend wildly just to keep the lights on.

The silver lining for the Trojans is that their business side is absolutely booming right now. Cohen shared that USC’s overall athletic department revenue has jumped by an impressive 60% over the last three years. Even crazier, donor contributions directly to the Trojan Athletic Fund have skyrocketed by an unbelievable 707%. In the end, Cohen made it clear that USC’s expectations are not changing.

The school is betting all-in on Lincoln Riley: roster funding and a new football facility that is almost finished. At the end of the day, college football may be changing. But the goal stays the same: USC is expected to make deep College Football Playoff runs and compete for national championships every year. Can they make it, though?

Lincoln Riley’s expedition to not get fired

USC absolutely has the talent to make a deep playoff run this season, but its brutal schedule means it will have to survive a weekly gauntlet to get there.

The biggest reason for optimism is that USC’s recruiting has been on absolute fire. They managed to secure a historic high school recruiting class, landing nine top-100 players in the country. Incredible true freshmen like tight end Mark Bowman and wide receiver Trent Mosley are already turning heads in practice and are expected to make an immediate impact on day 1, perhaps.

Even better, Riley finally fixed the team’s biggest historical weakness by bringing in legendary Gary Patterson now. For the first time in Riley’s SoCal career, you could expect top 15-20 defense without a doubt.

However, the path to the national championship is going to be an absolute nightmare because their schedule is ranked as one of the hardest in the entire country. USC has to host premier powerhouse teams like Oregon and Ohio State at the Coliseum, while also playing incredibly tough road games at Penn State, Wisconsin, and Indiana.

The good news is that USC does not have to be perfect because its schedule is so tough. Many college football experts believe that if the Trojans can go 4-2 in their six biggest games and win the rest, a 10-2 record should be enough to earn a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff.