It takes courage to challenge the GOAT, Nick Saban. And the USC Trojans HC Lincoln Riley conquered the guts to take a blatant shot at the former Alabama Crimson Tide HC. All this started at the Big Ten Media Days when the Trojans HC spilled beans on strategic scheduling now that the College Football Playoff has undergone expansion to 12 teams this year.

At the podium, Riley threw shade at Saban and his ways of building the schedule. Coming from an HC who has had an underwhelming record, a few days back the ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum threw light on Riley’s dark future.  

Riley challenges Saban and Alabama’s priority

While Riley took the stage to share his take on scheduling tactics, intentionally or unintentionally, he dragged THE NICK SABAN through the dirt. The Trojans HC shared insights on how he had certain notions about Crimson Tide, “Bama was ahead of the curve for years, I thought, on how they scheduled in the non-conference. They would occasionally hit the marquee non-conference game.” Till this statement, all seemed fine until Riley dropped the bomb.

As he continued with his remark, all Riley tried was to plant the idea of Saban and the Alabama program being absolutely selfish. He continued, “They’d play two other not-very-good teams; they’d play one late, so they got essentially a little bit of a bye week there late in the season. They didn’t schedule for their fans. They scheduled to win championships.” This was not the end as Riley came up with full-on confidence in his belief that they would do the best thing, bagging the championship while keeping his priorities straight. But Finebaum’s take on Riley speaks otherwise. 

Riley’s underwhelming season left Finebaum disappointed

The 2023 season was nothing but lackluster. The USC program suffered majorly while Riley tried to drive them through. Instead of hitting big, the Trojans ended up with a 19-8 record. Along with this, they came up empty with no College Football appearances and their reserve for Pac-12 titles ran dry. Going by Riley’s incapability to coach the Trojans, Finebaum has been more than sure about this season being the last chance for him. And based on this Finebaum came up on the ESPN College Football without sugarcoating his words. If there is anything that dragged Riley’s position down, it was his defensive strategy.  

Finebaum started with a big claim, “I thought last year was one of the worst coaching jobs I have ever seen, quite frankly.” The analyst then continued what he would have done with the coach if he had the due privilege, “Had I been the athletic director at Southern Cal, I would have fired Lincoln Riley because he’s yet to show, after many years as a head coach, he knows anything about defense.”This season would be even more challenging for Riley since he can no longer count on his key player, Caleb Williams.  

Finebaum has been absolutely serious about Riley. So much so that he has proposed Colorado Buffaloes HC Deion Sanders’ name as “the answer after this season.” Carrying the burden of an underwhelming season, on top of that, by criticizing Saban, did Riley’s actions just push him further towards the edge of losing his job? Do share your thoughts.