Matt Leinart does not believe USC is close to being contenders

The USC Trojans gave rival Notre Dame a scare in the final week of the season before the wheels came off and the Irish pulled away on the back of a pair of pick-sixes. With that, the Trojans fell to just 6-6 in the third season for the program under head coach Lincoln Riley.

With that loss to Notre Dame, former USC star and current analyst Matt Leinart shared that he doesn’t believe that USC is close to being contenders.

“Finish 6-6 and just really have no clue what we are ? Who we are? There’s no identity,” Matt Leinart posted to Twitter/X. “We have good players. Need to recruit harder. As frustrated as anyone. Want to see USC back to being a contender. Don’t think we are close at the moment.”

Lincoln Riley came to USC ahead of the 2022 season and he now has a 25-14 record there in three seasons. That run has seen the Trojans win fewer games in each consecutive season during Riley’s tenure, far from the success that was anticipated when he came to Los Angeles from Oklahoma.

One score games turned into a particular issue for Riley and USC in 2024, going just 3-5 in those opportunities. That’s after going 3-2 in those games the season prior.

For Matt Leinart, who won a Heisman Trophy and two national championships during his time as a player at USC, this difficult season was more than a bad year. It was a sign of issues within the program that Lincoln Riley will need to address in the offseason to help the Trojans become contenders moving forward.

When he first came to USC, Lincoln Riley inherited a Trojans team that had struggled with consistency since the end of the Pete Carroll era, who Matt Leinart had played under. Since the time Carroll left in 2009, Riley is the fourth coach to lead the USC program. In those years, the Trojans also have won double-digit games five times. That includes the first season Riley led the program.

The season isn’t quite over for USC. The Trojans are bowl eligible. That means that the Trojans have the opportunity to earn a winning record when it’s all said and done. However, if they’re not able to win that bowl game, USC will have its first losing season since 2021 under Clay Helton and just their third since Pete Carroll left the program.