Paul Finebaum calls for USC to end the Lincoln Riley era

ESPN’s Paul Finebaum had about enough of Lincoln Riley at USC and said it’s time to end the partnership.

With Riley in the middle of Year 3 with the Trojans, the results speak for themselves. A pretty good run in 2022 led to a disappointing 2023 season and now the ‘24 campaign could result in no bowl game.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong each season, but Finebaum said it’s over at this point.

“Matt, I know I’m getting off base here. Let me save the people at Southern Cal another year or two of anguish,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show. “Have a meeting, come to a conclusion that it was a good run for one year, but the last two have been a disaster, and give Lincoln Riley his walking papers. There’s no reason to think this is going to work, is it?” 

Riley is now 23-12 at USC in almost three seasons and 78-22 as a head coach. But his USC tenure is a far cry from his days at Oklahoma.

“I’ve been hard on Lincoln before the season,” Finebaum said. “He did have that big win over LSU, so everybody came at me and said ‘say you’re wrong, say you’re wrong.’ It was a good win, and since then, almost nothing else to show for it, even losing to James Franklin at home. I mean, that’s now pretty embarrassing isn’t it?”

Finebaum wasn’t the only one coming after Riley following a 26-21 loss to Washington to drop the Trojans to 4-5. USC legend LenDale White had enough as well.

“Lincoln u are f*****g stealing from USC. Donate ur salary to help recruit that coaching job u doing ain’t helping sh*t,” White posted on social media.

Following the loss to Washington, Riley pushed back on the idea that the Trojans need to make a change.

“I don’t handle losing very well. It hasn’t happened very much in my career. That part of it is unacceptable,” Riley said.

“It’s not like we’re getting our ass kicked. It’s not like I go back to the drawing board like gah, we’re doing this terrible, and people are wearing us out on this or that. It’s not that.”

USC has now lost four of its last five games. Those were all one-score losses. They’ll now need to win two of their final three games to get bowl-eligible, starting with Nebraska next week.