USC’s Lincoln Riley: big offensive numbers wherever he goes
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A coach with a great pedigree along with some doubters
The USC Trojans were previewed by Greg in this post. Now take a look at who leads them.
Lincoln Riley has garnered a lot of press in his time as a head coach. He spent 14 years as an assistant of some sort, but he moved up the ranks quickly, working with a big name or two and garnering a lot of attention as an offensive guru.
I’ve always felt that great coaches weren’t always great players. And even if they played well, maybe it wasn’t at the biggest school. Take Bill Parcells or Bill Belichick. Lincoln Riley played at Texas Tech and got there as a walk on. He stayed there as an assistant after graduation, with Mike Leach as a mentor. He moved to East Carolina when Ruffin McNeil, who had taken over for Leach, moved east. And for five years, Riley ran the offense for the Pirates, bringing with him the bold offense that he learned under Mike Leach.
At East Carolina, the offense kept racking up yards. In 2010, his offense averaged 437 yards/game. With a slight step back in 2011 (only 395/game), the offense kept stepping up: 2012-408 ypg, 2013-469 ypg, 2014-533 ypg. That was enough to get the attention of Bob Stoops.
He was hired by Stoops as OC for Oklahoma. In his two seasons in the position, the Sooners’ offense average 530 and 554 ypg with the team going 23-4. When Stoops left, Riley became Oklahoma’s head coach and continued that success. He won four Big XII Championships from 2017 to 2020. As a head coach there, he went 55-10 with the highest winning percentage of any Oklahoma coach. Oklahoma (and Riley) won all four of the Big XII Championship Games they were in.
It was reported that Riley was unhappy with Oklahoma’s decision to move to the SEC from their long time home in the Big XII. OU’s Athletic Director Joe Castiglione said that Riley had been “on board” with Oklahoma’s shift to the SEC. But, regardless of the reason, Riley moved on to USC.
Since landing in California, Lincoln Riley has led USC to a 35-18 record, 19-8 in the Pac 12 and 16-10 in the B1G (two seasons in each conference). The only head-to-head with Rutgers and Greg Schiano was on Oct 25, 2024 at the Coliseum; USC won that contest 42-20 in a statistically close game. USC was 7-6 (B1G 4-5) that year with a win over Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl.
A lot of winning….at Oklahoma. Not as much in the four years at USC. And that has led to some criticism of Riley. A reported $90 million dollar buyoutis a not insignificant issue out west. Those who brought Riley to the Trojans are getting impatient and are tired of what some say are excuses being offered instead of seeing wins. And it isn’t good when the term“epic failure” is bandied about when discussing a coach.
Greg’s post on USC offered this year as a perfect opportunity for Rutgers to step it up and steal a signature win. Maybe it’s a possibility. But, commenters weren’t too sure RU has the ability. And Lincoln Riley has a few reasons to not lose to the Knights.
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