Most USC fans still trust Lincoln Riley, but not all of them

On our recent USC football call-in show at The Voice of College Football, something happened at the 27:50 mark of the broadcast. A caller on our show was not convinced that Lincoln Riley is the right guy for USC. Issues going back to Oklahoma shaped the caller’s perspective. He felt Riley inherited a great OU program that got worse every year.

We discussed that Oklahoma was 8-5 in 2014, the year before Riley arrived as offensive coordinator. He inherited Mike Stoops as his defensive coordinator when he became the Sooners’ head coach. Riley’s offenses were the main sources of success for Bob Stoops’ last few teams at Oklahoma, and the defense is what held them back. Riley definitely did make a mistake by hiring and retaining Alex Grinch on staff at USC.

Lincoln Riley is a young coach and D’Anton Lynn is only his second defensive coordinator hire. The jury is out and we will see how the defense performs this year for USC.

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