Paul Finebaum Names One Reason Big Ten Contender Will Miss College Football Playoff

The Oklahoma Sooners had a solid run of producing Heisman winners in 2017 and 2018. Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray won the award in consecutive seasons.

The man who coached those players at Oklahoma was Lincoln Riley. After his stint at Oklahoma, Riley headed to California to coach the USC Trojans. He coached Caleb Williams, who won the award in 2022.

While there are fans of Riley, Paul Finebaum is not one of them. Finebaum appeared on SportsCenter recently to talk about his problems with the head coach. Finebaum even called Riley a "hot mess."

"Last season was a hot mess at the end, that this team crashed and burned with the best player in college football," Finebaum said. "I don't like the future. He went out and got another defensive coordinator from across the street, but it's still the same old problem for Lincoln Riley. He only knows one side of the ball, and I think that's gonna keep them out of the playoffs."

Williams' production dropped compared to his Heisman-winning season in 2022. The USC quarterback had 3,633 passing yards and 30 touchdowns, compared to 4,537 passing yards and 42 touchdowns a year prior.

However, the blame should not all be on Williams.

Last season was a disaster for USC in all respects. They got off to a 6-0 start before going 1-5 in its final six regular-season games. The defense was one of the worst in the Pac-12 as well. The Trojans allowed the most rushing yards (186.5) and third-most offensive yards per game (432.8)

To help remedy the defense, USC hired former UCLA Bruins defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn. Under Lynn last season, UCLA was in the top five points allowed per game (18.4), opponent turnovers per game (1.8), and passing yards allowed per game (220.8). UCLA also led the conference in rushing yards allowed per game (80.8) and total yards allowed per game (301.5).

USC opens the year with the LSU Tigers on Sept. 1.

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