Major College Football Coach Floated to Take McCarthy's Place With Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys are fresh off an NFC East Division win over the New York Giants on Thursday night, but absent meaningful playoff success this season the writing is on the wall for head coach Mike McCarthy .

A loss this week, which would have dropped the Cowboys to 1-3, might have been enough to oust McCarthy from his head coaching position with America's team. As imminent as a major change in Dallas appears, thoughts about his successor have begun circulating among national pundits.

Bill Bender of The Sporting News on Sept. 25 floated USC head coach and offensive guru Lincoln Riley as a potential candidate for the Cowboys job.

Riley, 41, is a constant in these NFL coaching carousel lists, and he would be a similar fit as [Kliff] Kingsbury . He has been a hyper-successful college coach at Oklahoma and USC, but he is even better with quarterbacks.

Four NFL starting quarterbacks — Baker Mayfield , Kyler Murray , Jalen Hurts , and Caleb Williams — played for Riley in college. Hurts played in a Super Bowl. Mayfield and Murray are in the top 10 in passer rating this year. Williams has time to grow in Chicago. You want to get the most out of Dak Prescott ? Riley could be that coach, and a return home to his native state in this fashion has always made sense.

Riley has come under fire in recent seasons for his lack of defensive focus and execution, which has shown up in glaring fashion over the past two seasons -- first with Williams under center pretty much all of last year and as recently as last week in a loss to the Michigan Wolverines , during which the USC defense allowed 290 rushing yards in a 3-point loss.

But the NFL is a different animal and an elite defensive coordinator with play-calling duties and some input on personnel decisions could patch the holes in Riley's resume and allow him to focus on maximizing what should be a potent offense for years to come behind the Prescott and CeeDee Lamb QB-WR connection.