Longtime commentator believes Lincoln Riley has been a 'disaster' at USC

One analyst believes Southern Cal made a mistake when it gave head coach Lincoln Riley another chance this offseason.

On a Monday episode of ESPN's "First Take," longtime college football commentator Paul Finebaum skewered Riley, who's likely entering a make-or-break year.

"I thought last year was one of the worst coaching jobs I have ever seen," Finebaum said. "Quite frankly, had I been the athletic director at Southern Cal, I would have fired Lincoln Riley because he has yet to show after many years as a head coach he knows anything about defense. He's gone through defensive coordinators. He just simply couldn't handle it."

Clearly, Finebaum isn't a Riley fan. Last week, he predicted Southern Cal would fire the 40-year-old coach at the end of the season on "McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning" on WJOX-FM in Birmingham, Alabama.

Claiming his tenure with the Trojans is a train wreck seems like an overstatement, but he has fallen short of expectations in his first two seasons with the program. Riley — whose estimated 2024 salary is $10M, per 247 Sports Brad Crawford — hasn't led the Trojans to the College Football Playoff or won a conference title.

This pales in comparison to his time at Oklahoma, where he guided the Sooners to three CFP trips and four Big 12 titles in five seasons.

In August, Southern Cal will officially move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten, a much more competitive conference. This doesn't bode well for the Trojans after they backtacked in 2023, finishing with a 7-5 record.

Of course, many of their problems are tied to a porous defense that allowed 34.4 points per game. To solve the issue, they replaced defensive coordinator Alex Grinch with D'Anton Lynn. If this fails, boosters may point the finger at Riley.

According to Crawford, Riley's estimated buyout is $88M , the second-largest in college football. Still, USC may ignore the price if he keeps failing to produce results.