Letters to Sports: USC's defense, sportsmanship called into question
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Lincoln Riley is the personification of The Peter Principle. He would be a good offensive coordinator for any team that wanted him. What he is not is head coach material. It is beyond his abilities. For five seasons, he has proven he has no idea what a defense should be or do. He can’t recruit defensive players and he can’t hire coaches who can do the job. He needs to be sent on his merry way far away from USC.
Jack Dietz
La Quinta
USC beats four early-season patsies to boost their stats and gain a No. 12 ranking, all the while their defense stinks. You had to know it was coming, and that Oregon was going to be the first of many this season to show them up. If we want a different story, Lincoln Riley has to go along with his defensive coaches.
Steve Graham
Ventura
Lincoln Riley, what part of “Defense wins championships!” do you not understand?
To let you in on a wee secret, a defense and discipline-oriented culture goes a long way to being competitive at the level Trojan fans expect. You’re welcome for these insights; it is recommended to implement immediately!
Presuming you care to keep your job; and considering the clock is rapidly winding down.
Chuck Sargent
Houston
USC executes yet another belly flop against a top opponent, and Gary Patterson’s vaunted defense is giving up more than 35 points per game in the Big Ten. Oh, I long for the glory days of … Clay Helton!
Jack Wolf
Westwood
Lincoln Riley talks a big game about excelling in the Big Ten, but in losing badly to Oregon and its backup quarterback, USC probably couldn’t win the Pac-12 this year.
Well, maybe Gary Patterson’s high school level defense and cheap hits could hold off Mater Dei, Texas State or Utah Valley Tech, but the Trojans might even lose to Washington State and Oregon State this year.
Where are you, John McKay and Marv Goux!?!?
Jay Ross
West Los Angeles
Dear USC Administration and AD,
Please bring Pete Carroll back immediately as coach. A short-term stint while he grooms a successor (Carson Palmer?) would work perfectly. This bold move would add instant credibility again and immediate buzz to the program while energizing the fans. As well as taking back ownership of recruiting locally and in the West. That school across town has been taking headlines from us with their coaching change. Time to take it back from them, don’t you think?
Ted von der Ahe
Pasadena
He’s got to go
If USC doesn’t kick Desman Stephens II off the team, period, and suspend for one or more games his teammates who celebrated a blatantly illegal hit, then Lincoln Riley and his entire coaching staff should be immediately dismissed.
To those who say “they’re just kids caught up in the situation:” they are old enough to vote, and they are old enough to make thousands of dollars for playing and maybe much more to represent a Los Angeles university and not be a shameful embarrassment to the school and the city.
Riley’s career has been littered with undisciplined and thuggish behavior by USC football players “just caught up in the game.” It’s time it ends.
Kip Dellinger
Santa Monica
Desman Stephens’ response to his late hit on quarterback Dante Moore was an embarrassing display of poor judgment and a lack of respect for the game. Stephens and several teammates then appeared to taunt the Oregon players and celebrate the dirty play rather than show concern for a fellow college athlete who was lying motionless on the field. If Lincoln Riley can’t control undisciplined behavior like this, it says a lot about how little his players respect him — and what kind of program USC is becoming.
George Pisano
Rancho Palos Verdes
Leadership starts at the top. There is an army of assistant coaches, coordinators, graduate assistants, etc., all appointed by Lincoln Riley, any or all of whom should have gone over to Desman Stephens and said, “hand me your helmet, go to the locker room, and be where coach can find you in three hours.”
None did. That moral and ethical failure is on Riley.
David Seidel
Beverly Hills
I am sad to say after decades supporting USC, I rooted for Oregon after witnessing that late hit Saturday. My seats are near that end zone and we were all stunned to see the intentional, brutal hit followed by the lack of any empathy, remorse or sportsmanship from our head coach.
Regina Birdsell
Irvine
Who will it be?
So if we are talking about who will be “That Guy” for the Dodgers, as Bill Plaschke writes, then I would add Kiké Hernández to that list after his game-winning home run against the Giants last Saturday.
And here’s hoping that Bill Plaschke will also be “That Guy” for his predictions this season.
Mark Sherwin
Los Angeles
100 and done?
The good news for the 2026 Dodgers is that they won 100 regular-season games. The bad news for the 2026 Dodgers is that the Dodgers have never won the World Series after winning 100 or more games in the regular season. If records are made to be broken, then stats are made to be changed.
Vaughn Hardenberg
Westwood
Age dissemination
I don’t need The Times to tell me I’m old. But until I read its headline writers telling me that Red Sanders’ 1949 beginning with four wins while I was at Fairfax High was before the “modern era,” I hadn’t understood that I’m ancient. Bill Plaschke in the same issue writes of Chuck Essegian’s 1959 pinch-hit World Series homer without any indication it was in the stone age. When exactly between 1949 and 1959 does The Times claim the modern era began?
Richard Agay
Los Angeles
Reversal of fortune
So the Rams blew a 16-0 halftime lead in Denver? I was hoping that Stan Kroenke buying the Angels meant that the Angels would start looking more like the Rams, not that the Rams would start looking more like the Angels.
Randy Sherman
Mission Viejo
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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