Sooner Fans, Media React To Lincoln Riley & USC's Loss To Utah

Two-thirds of the way through Lincoln Riley’s second season at Southern California, the Trojans’ national title chances and Caleb Williams’ hopes of a Heisman Trophy repeat are all but gone.

Oh, and Riley’s record through his first 22 games at USC is exactly the same as that of his comprehensively maligned predecessor, Clay Helton.

This clearly isn’t what USC had in mind when it paid top dollar to lure Riley from Oklahoma nearly two years ago with the explicit understanding that the Trojans would return to the national prominence demanded by their deep-pocketed boosters, a resource-rich university and decades of NFL-bound players.

Combined with the massive expansion of the transfer portal, Riley has everything a coach could need to succeed quickly, even while inheriting a decayed program.

Riley is 17-5 at USC, but absolutely nobody is happy.

Image Provided By: Associated Press

Only a spectacular finish by these Trojans (6-2, 4-1 Pac-12) could repair the damage of back-to-back losses to Notre Dame and Utah — defeats that occurred after several weeks of steadily deteriorating play by Williams and his teammates.

“Definitely not a feeling that I want to get used to,” Riley said after the Trojans lost 34-32 to Utah on Saturday night by allowing a lengthy Utes drive in the final two minutes and a field goal at the gun. “As gut-wrenching a defeat as I can remember in my career. Hate it for the guys in there. We fought our tails off. We fought so hard.”

USC dropped to No. 24 in the AP Top 25 on Sunday, falling six spots after its fourth straight loss to the Utes. It’s the Trojans’ lowest ranking since Riley’s arrival, but their position has slipped for five consecutive weeks now while USC’s play failed to match everyone’s expectations, particularly on defense.

Williams didn’t say anything publicly about the Trojans’ latest loss because Riley inexplicably refused to make players available to the media after the game. It’s just the latest way the coach from tiny Muleshoe, Texas, has acted as if major-market Los Angeles is overwhelming him at times this season.

Riley has demonstrated a thin skin to criticism, and he repeatedly has the USC defense is playing better than its nationwide critics understand — even while the Trojans are giving up 407.6 yards per game this season, good for 104th in the FBS, and 30.5 points per game, ranking 105th.

Riley got into an ugly public spat with a newspaper beat reporter last month for a series of supposed infractions of USC’s rules for covering the team. Riley then ordered a media blackout after the well-fought, narrow loss to Utah — hardly a cause for his players to feel the embarrassment or persecution Riley apparently anticipated.

Following the game, fans of the Sooners and those who cover OU currently and during the Riley regime did not hold back. Here are a few reactions from Saturday:

Reaction From Fans and Media: