LOS ANGELES — USC coach Lincoln Riley had yet another terse postgame press conference following his team’s 33-30 overtime loss to No. 4 Penn State on Saturday.
“It always falls to me,” Riley said when a reporter asked which party deserved the blame Saturday after another blown lead. “I always take it. I’m the head coach. It’s all my job. Believe me, there is nobody taking more responsibility than I am, so I don’t know where that line of questioning comes from.
“The reality is we have played the toughest schedule in the country the first six games and we had a chance to win every single one of them.”
It was still a more cordial postgame presser than last week’s, when Riley was roundly criticized for intercepting a benign question intended for one of his players. But if losing to Minnesota made Riley boiling-mad, losing to Penn State — and blowing a chance for a signature win in Year 3 in Los Angeles — was more of a downer. A true missed opportunity for a signature win.
For the third time in four weeks, USC lost a game it led deep into the fourth quarter (the Trojans were up 20-6 at halftime). In the Trojans’ first game as a member of the Big Ten against Michigan last month, the defense allowed a game-winning touchdown on fourth-and-goal with 37 seconds remaining. Last week against Minnesota, USC. yielded two touchdowns in the final eight minutes — including a go-ahead one-yard score on fourth-and-goal with 56 seconds remaining.
If you sense a theme here, your intuition is correct. With 3:48 remaining in regulation against Penn State, USC once again couldn’t get the stop it needed to potentially ice the game. Penn State quarterback Drew Allar connected with wide receiver Julian Fleming for a 16-yard gain on fourth-and-10 to move the sticks, and the offense scored the game-tying touchdown two plays later to send it to overtime. USC missed a field goal in the opening frame of overtime and Penn State won the game a few plays later.
Welcome to the Big Ten, USC.
USC’s first year playing in a conference that Riley describes as “big boy ball” is not going well. USC is 1-3 in conference play for the first time since Pete Carroll patrolled the sidelines in 2001. Looming games against Rutgers, Washington and Nebraska are true swing opportunities on the horizon. A sweep or 2-1 split could salvage the season. Anything worse is only going to ratchet up the noise.
Riley has now lost his last five games against top-five teams. He is 0-3 against AP top-10 opponents and 4-9 against ranked teams during his time at USC. The Trojans’ last win over a top-five opponent came in the 2017 Rose Bowl against Penn State.
“Everything we do ultimately falls on my shoulders,” Riley said. “I promise I don’t sweep any of the bad or anything that hasn’t gone our way under the rug. I’ve got to continue to get better. We all have to be better and that starts with me.”
The Trojans had a great gameplan Saturday, hence the first half lead. Riley was able to scheme up looks against a vaunted Penn State defense, as R.J. Abeytia of 247Sports’ USCFootball.com writes.
Riley played the hand he was dealt about as well as a coach can play it. The Nittany Lions got all they could handle for much of the day thanks in large part to a creative and, most importantly, realistic game plan from Riley. The Penn State defensive line arrived with a reputation as elite among a conference of physical fronts. Riley wisely spent very little time calling the game as if he had an elite offensive line capable of dictating terms in the run or the pass.
It was not enough, and as Abeytia writes: “The bottom line is what Riley needs to get USC over the hump in this conference isn’t gonna happen during game weeks no matter how many McKay Center overnights (four this past week) he stacks. He needs to assemble an offensive and defensive line capable of dictating terms up front. “
In the transfer portal era, it’s arguable it should not be taking this long to do just that.
Dating back to USC’s 48-20 loss on the road against Notre Dame last fall, USC is 5-8 in its last 13 games. The Trojans have dropped four of their last five home conference games. This can’t be what Riley thought he was getting himself into when he left a great situation at Oklahoma. How Riley and the Trojans have gone from the brink of a Pac-12 Championship and College Football Playoff berth in 2022 to .500 midway through Year 3 is one of the game’s biggest mysteries. And no longer is the defense to totally blame like it usually was under Riley. He fixed that unit by firing Alex Grinch hiring D’Anton Lynn this year. Now other issues have popped up.
Instead of Riley celebrating the biggest win of his tenure at USC, it was the visiting team who got the last laugh. Penn State’s contingent of fans near the tunnel where the Trojans run out of before games loudly chanted “We are Penn State” as players made their way to the locker room.
The lasting image of one of the best games of the college football season came when a Penn State player planted a “We Are” flag on the USC logo near midfield, much to James Franklin’s chagrin. And Riley’s.
“That’s stuff outside the game,” Riley said when asked about the flag planting at midfield. “We are proud of our program. We don’t take a backseat to anybody.”
Brand-wise, that may be true. But if performances like this continue, USC will take a backseat to the top contenders of the new-look conference until the Trojans learn how to finish and win close games. If the last month as been any indication, Riley’s program has a long way to go.
