Lincoln Riley Has Not Taken Responsibility For USC's Late Game Failures

By Kyle Golik

It seemed Southern California head coach Lincoln Riley had decoded and used Penn State’s aggressiveness against them.

Entering the game, Penn State was amongst the nation’s leaders in run defense allowing only 76.2 rushing yards per game. Trojan running back Quinten Joyner nearly matched that total on Southern California’s opening touchdown. Overall, Joyner and his running back partner senior Woody Marks combined to rush for 193 yards rushing with a touchdown on the ground, and were just as lethal in the passing game with four receptions for 56 yards and a touchdown.

The fact Southern California out-rushed Penn State, who entered the game with the No. 2 Big Ten rushing attack at 217.8 yards per game, 189 to 118 as a team was another feather in the Trojans cap.

Entering the game, protecting Southern California quarterback Miller Moss seemed to be one of the biggest challenges for Riley to figure out. Against Michigan, EDGE rusher Josiah Stewart was treating Trojan tackles as a turnstile left unprotected .

With Penn State bringing in two of the nation’s elite EDGE rushers in Abdul Carter, who has the highest pressure rate in the nation since 2022, and Dani Dennis-Sutton, it seemed Penn State was poised to feast defensively against an offensive line the three previous games that allowed Moss to be sacked six times and get pressured 46 times.

Against Penn State, Riley and offensive line coach Josh Henson seemingly figured out the exotic blitzes of Penn State and only allowed three quarterback hurries and Moss was only sacked once.

In return for having time to operate, Moss was efficient throughout the day. Complemented by a ground attack that bludgeoned an elite Penn State run defense Moss was, up until Penn State defensive back Jaylen Reed’s interception at the end of regulation, 19 for 30 passing for 220 yards and two touchdowns.

Moss’ wide receivers really didn’t have any killer drops that seemingly crippled drives earlier this season.

It seemed Riley had a recipe for success that was going to give Southern California their first Top 5 win since, ironically, the 2017 Rose Bowl against Penn State and their first signature conference win as a Big Ten member.

As Southern California hit the locker room at halftime up 20-6 and in full command, this game reminded me of many Penn State stumbles at The Coliseum where Penn State had the more talented team. Somehow Riley was channeling the ghost of Larry Smith, who guided a 3-8 Southern California team in an upset over No. 5 Penn State in 1991 and won the duel of former quarterback prodigies of Tony Sacca (Penn State) and Todd Marinovich (Southern California) in 1990.

What Riley and Southern California weren't prepared for was the Nittany Lion “Trojan Horse” and the third-quarter avalanche the Nittany Lions have handed to opponents throughout the 2024 season.

Penn State outgained Southern California 172 to 59 in the third quarter and overall 311 to 161 in the second half and overtime, outscoring the Trojans 27-10.

Postgame, this led to Riley being questioned how much responsibility falls on him. He started by saying "It always falls to me.”

Then Riley immediately pivoted to an emotional outburst that seemed to have a woven thread of defiance about being questioned about taking responsibility:

“When have I ever [shirked] responsibility. I always take it. I'm the head coach. It's all my job. Believe me, there isn't nobody taking more responsibility than I am. I don't know where that line of questioning comes from. Yeah, I think it is -- it's the good and 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. That's hard to do, to put yourself in position to win these games is frickin hard to do to begin with, so we're doing a lot of good.”

As Riley seemingly calmed down from his outburst, there was a seeming sense of acceptance the results haven’t been good enough.

“And I understand that that good's 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 on the last play, and I understand it. That's part of it. We all understood this when signed up for big boy football, so I get it. We've got to do a better job at the end of games, I have to do a better job, our coaches, our players, because we're doing too many good things to put us in situations where we have the lead and we can win, but we gotta get paid off for it. We gotta be able to finish, and it all falls on my shoulders at the end. That's part of why they call me head coach."

As Riley wants to point out how it falls on his shoulders, since the 2022 Pac-12 Championship Game against Utah, the previous 21 games the results show Riley isn’t getting it done in the most critical moments as Southern California is 11-10 during that span. This includes a 2-8 record against ranked opponents.

It seems Trojan fans are in a “Groundhog Day” infinite loop where they constantly wake up to their team starting out strong and then self-destructing at the game's pivotal moments.

As I wrote last week , 2022 was a gift and now it is a burden because the Trojan program really needed more pieces to it and Caleb Williams was able to masquerade a lot of deficiencies that are bearing themselves out. Moss is a fantastic quarterback, but he simply doesn’t have that rare gift to do what Williams was able to do, and Riley recognizes this.

What Riley hasn’t been able to figure out is how to wake from his personal “Groundhog Day”. It seems we have seen this from Riley over and over again, and will continue to do so until Riley’s words translate into his players taking action to fix the mistakes that seemingly engulf them in the biggest moments. The coaching seemingly isn’t working and outside of Riley’s lip service to fans and media, he really hasn’t focused on fixing it through 21 games and I don’t see it being fixed anytime soon.