Lincoln Riley hammered after suffering worst loss of head coaching career at Notre Dame
Lincoln Riley has a mess on his hands.
The Trojans were out-played, out-coached, out-muscled, and undone Saturday night in South Bend. In a 48-20 loss to Notre Dame, Lincoln Riley suffered the worst loss of his head coaching career and saw his offense have the single worst day a Riley-led unit has had since 2015.
USC suffered its first loss of the season, yes. The conference record is still 4-0, yes. But the Trojans have looked flawed for weeks and those shortcomings on offense were laid bare for all to see by an Irish defense that just took it to USC.
Quarterback Caleb Williams threw three interceptions, completed just 62% of his passes, and totaled only 191 yards of offense. He pressed and made mistakes.
USC fumbled it away on its last two possessions to finish with more turnovers against Notre Dame (five) than it had in the previous six games (four).
After the game, Riley was lit up on social media.
Here’s some of the reaction:
I want to criticize Caleb Williams for throwing three interceptions in the first half of this game, but the man has dudes in his face the second the ball hits his fingertips. USC is a deeply flawed, average football team with a spectacular talent at QB. Nothing more.
— Ari Wasserman (@AriWasserman) October 15, 2023
At the end of this season,
Lincoln Riley will have had Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts, & Caleb Williams at quarterback throughout his career.
& not even one playoff win to show for it.
— Yosef (@AirYosef) October 15, 2023
USC playing like Lincoln Riley is about to suddenly decide overnight to take the Chicago Bears job
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) October 15, 2023
What does #USC do well? – Is a legitimate question seven weeks into the season
— Antonio Morales (@AntonioCMorales) October 15, 2023
Well USC's line and QB look completely overwhelmed, but Notre Dame is very good. Next week USC can get back to what it does well and go from there.
<earpiece buzzes>
ah, well, nevertheless pic.twitter.com/EFDMpOwa10
— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) October 15, 2023
No run game. Can't play defense. Turnovers. Road game against a rival. Yep. I do think #USC can still get some wins here in the meat of the schedule. But the wheels came off at the end of that game, which is not good to see.
— Gerard Martinez (@gmartlive) October 15, 2023
USC …
— record vs. ranked: 0-1
(losing 48-20 at No. 21 ND)
— record vs unranked: 6-0
(combined opp record: 13-26)
(best win: at home vs Az/3OT)
Not a top-25 worthy resume— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) October 15, 2023
Lincoln Riley inherited a Rolls Royce from Bob Stoops and killed the culture and defense. Teams statistically got worse year after year. Stunning offense, but not much else. It stung by HOW he left. That’s why fans were upset. Believe me…Oklahoma is glad he is gone. BOOMER!
— Cody Mayo (@Codymayo) October 15, 2023
Lincoln Riley having to coach against an actual defense
pic.twitter.com/guxep48LAl— Stan Him Boomer Sooner (Hunter Harjo) (@hunterharjo7) October 15, 2023
Lincoln Riley would not have lasted 2 years in the SEC man
— Boomer Beamer (@ImDerBatman) October 15, 2023
Every neutral fan watching USC get rocked pic.twitter.com/M3ilgvpZHm
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 15, 2023
USC was embarrassing. Lincoln Riley unprepared (again) to face any team better-than-average. The homers can't sugarcoat this one
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) October 15, 2023
This has been coming for weeks. But Lincoln Riley has generally been too arrogant to acknowledge it with his comments about fans having "untrained eyes."
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) October 15, 2023
If you don't value defense. Or physical play. You can only go so far. Lincoln Riley might realize it . . . one day
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) October 15, 2023
One other thing: I never got a sense Lincoln Riley understood this week the importance of Notre Dame game. For many fans, it's biggest game of year
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) October 15, 2023
I think it’s pretty clear to everyone now that Riley was handed the keys to a Ferrari by Bob Stoops.
His rebuild at USC is going backwards like his last 2 years at OU when Stoops’ recruits graduated
— Dryfit Venables (@DryfitVenables) October 15, 2023
Lincoln Riley should defend his defense for 6 full minutes this time.
— Josh Newman (@Joshua_Newman) October 15, 2023