USC's No. 1 complaint for their head coach? A lack of accountability

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Even though Lincoln Riley is a proven offensive mind in the sport and has established an ability to be an elite recruiter, Riley still doesn’t have the best reputation around college football, or even within his own fan base.

Riley enters the 2026 season with a career record of 90-28 as a head coach and is 35-18 but he’s 0-3 in the College Football Playoffs. All three of those losses came with Oklahoma, as the USC Trojans, like the UCLA Bruins, are still awaiting their first CFP appearance.

USC has all the talent a program could ask for, which puts a great deal of pressure on Riley and the Trojans to impress in 2026. Trojans Wire writer Matt Zemek explained why Riley can frustrate the USC fanbase.

“The biggest criticisms of Lincoln Riley from USC fans all run together, because they all eventually land on the same problem at the root of everything: a lack of accountability. Lincoln Riley doesn't get his teams to play physically enough. He doesn't get his defenses to play physically enough. He doesn't get his defenses to show up against quality offenses. He hasn't hired elite defensive coaches. He showed way too much loyalty to Alex Grinch by bringing him back in 2023 for a second season when a mature coach focused on winning championships would have fired him and insisted on something much better,” Zemek wrote. “Riley is still a loyalist to "his guys" instead of being ruthless in hiring and firing decisions on his staff. There is a soft, tentative, brittle, stubborn quality to Riley in which he doesn't make the cutthroat move and doesn't get his teams to breathe fire as consistently as they should. You don't see Curt Cignetti teams play soft or fail to get the details right. You don't see Kirby Smart-coached teams fail to answer the bell in big SEC games. Lincoln Riley hasn't been a good coach since 2022. Call him soft or too loyal or undisciplined, it all goes back to a lack of accountability and not insisting on the absolute best at every position.”

UCLA fans will hope that continues this season for their crosstown rivals.

This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: USC's No. 1 complaint for their head coach? A lack of accountability

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