Lincoln Riley isn’t engaging with the growing criticism of his USC football team after the Trojans needed a late push to hold off Rutgers, a team that had been blown out by UMass just two weeks earlier.
Much of the frustration from fans and media has centered on USC’s defense, which surrendered 460 yards and 35 points to Rutgers — nearly matching what the Scarlet Knights had managed across their first two games combined. A third of the way into the regular season, the addition of defensive coordinator Gary Patterson hasn’t meaningfully changed the unit’s output. USC currently ranks No. 60 nationally in yards allowed per game (317.5) and No. 73 in points allowed per game (22.8), numbers built against a schedule that included Louisiana, Fresno State, San Jose State and one of the weaker teams in the Big Ten.
Asked Tuesday about the widespread criticism, Riley said he’s not paying much attention to outside opinion.
“Yeah, I base my opinions on what I see on tape, I base my opinions on what I see in the thousands of hours that we put into this and that’s kind of where my opinions stay, so I really don’t have a response to that,” Riley said. “Our job is to win, our job is to continue to battle and continue to improve. We need to play a lot better on third down and fourth down than we did the other night, and that’s the biggest thing that we took away from that. So, we made a lot of big plays, but we’ve got to play steadier, and we’ve got to get off the field when we get the opportunities.”
Riley was pointing to Rutgers converting 6 of 11 third downs and 3 of 4 fourth downs — a stat line that would raise fewer eyebrows against a top-tier opponent than against one of the weaker teams in a Power Four conference.
Oregon comes to the Coliseum
The timing of USC’s defensive struggles is notable given what’s next: the No. 20 Oregon Ducks visit the Coliseum on Saturday afternoon. Riley is 0-2 against Oregon in his tenure, though both of those losses came at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, meaning a home setting removes one obvious excuse if the Trojans fall short again.
The matchup between the No. 12 Trojans (4-0) and the Ducks (2-1) has lost a bit of its shine after USC’s shaky win over Rutgers and Oregon’s own stumble the week before against Oklahoma State. USC was again passed over for ESPN’s “College GameDay,” which hasn’t visited the Coliseum since 2013; the show will instead be in Knoxville for Tennessee-Texas. Still, USC announced a sellout for Saturday’s game, underscoring its standing as the biggest game on the West Coast this weekend.
“This game should have a lot riding on it and be important,” Riley said. “It’s important to the fan bases, it’s important to college football. … It’s going to be an electric atmosphere.”
Oregon coach Dan Lanning delivered a memorable pregame speech last year before the Ducks pulled away for a 42-27 win, telling his team USC was “living off their history” and adding, “Matt Leinart, he ain’t walking through there,” along with, “Why are you wearing black? You’re going to a Trojan funeral.”
Stakes for the playoff picture
A loss Saturday would be costly for either program. For Oregon, it would likely end any realistic path to the College Football Playoff. For USC, a defeat would put its own CFP hopes in serious jeopardy before September even ends, especially with a demanding stretch still ahead — road trips to No. 13 Penn State and No. 5 Indiana, plus a home matchup against No. 7 Ohio State.
Riley cautioned against reading too much into any single week, good or bad.
“Each game’s its own game and you have to understand and you have to learn from it,” Riley said, “but just because something happened in one game for any side — good or bad — has no bearing on what’s going to happen the next week.”
