Urban Meyer on USC struggles: ‘It does not compute to me’

Urban Meyer truly can’t believe why USC struggles at this point under Lincoln Riley. Riley is now 5-8 in his last 13 games, including losing five of seven to end last season.

With that brand and recruiting base of California, Meyer was borderline stunned that this wasn’t an easy Top 10 or 5 team in the country at this stage. So what is the solution?

Well, if it were that easy, Riley and USC might be better than 3-3 through the halfway point of the season.

“This does not compute,” Meyer said on The Triple Option. “It has not computed with me for the last 10, 15, years. To me, that is a top five spot. You stumble over players when you recruit. I recruited out there forever when I was a Colorado State, Utah. I mean it, it’s like, to me, Texas and California are different … In Texas and Cal, they’re like college coaches …

“It does not compute to me, the history, tradition and recruiting base and financial support at USC, and coach Riley has gone 5-8 in the last 13 games. This is on the heels of the previous staff that really struggled. So you can keep blaming coaches. But is there some, I guess, is there something there? Is there a problem? Because that is a top five job.”

Meyer can’t comprehend it, although fellow FOX Sports’ analyst Joel Klatt was a little nicer to Riley and USC.

“I count about three (schools) that you walk in, and everybody knows exactly who you are,” Meyer said. “The Golden Dome, when you walk in with a Notre Dame shirt, everybody stops, because there are Notre Dame fans everywhere. All due respect to Alabama, (they) became that with (Nick) Saban. I think USC, you walk in any place in the country, and everybody sees that Trojan or USC (logo) those colors on your shirt, and they stop, and are like, I got you. I think the Buckeyes are like that too because they are a national school.”

Despite being that close, Riley took the blame. Who knows how much more he can take for USC? To be fair, the Trojans likely won’t pull the plug on this era anytime soon.

But people like Meyer are fair to wonder why it’s just not working right now.“It always falls to me,” Riley said after the Penn State loss. When have I ever shied from the responsibility? I always take it; I’m the head coach. It’s all my job. Believe me, there’s nobody taking more responsibility than I am. So I don’t know where that line of questioning comes from. It’s the good and the bad of it, and it both exists. The reality is, we’ve played the toughest schedule in the country the first six games. We’ve had a chance to win every single game, and that’s hard to do.

“To put yourself in position to win these games is freaking hard to do to begin with. So we’re doing a lot of good, and I understand that that good is not going to get seen by the outside right now, because they’re going to focus on the record and the fact that we’ve lost three games in the last play (of the game).”