Ducks could profit as L.A. Times beat writer puts Lincoln Riley on hot seat watch

Longtime L.A. Times writer Bill Plaschke unloaded on USC Trojan head coach Lincoln Riley in a column Friday.

"USC football has become a mirage," Plaschke wrote.

"The greatness is gone. The new tradition is mediocrity. The new heritage is irrelevance."

Harsh words from the front page of the sports section at the paper of record in Southern California. Plaschke has covered the Trojans since 1987, a regular panelist on the "Around the Horn" sports debate show on ESPN, recently canceled.

The veteran beat writer covered three national championship teams during the tenures of John Robinson and Pete Carroll. In all SC won the PAC-10/12 title 16 times since Plaschke hit L.A., though the last one came in 2008 before Carroll bolted for the Seahawks.

If a Trojan coach loses Plaschke, they've lost the city. Over the last two seasons Riley is 8-5 and 7-6, 4-5 in his first season in the Big Ten.

If that trend continues in 2025, Riley could be a casualty, and it becomes open season on that 2026 recruiting class, which includes Oregon targets like cornerback Elbert Hill, linebacker Talanoa Ili, wide receiver Boobie Feaster and 6-2, 337 defensive lineman Tomuhini Topui, whom the Trojans flipped from Oregon back in April.

Of course the Trojan brass knows this, which could help buy Riley more time. Yet the pressure is on the fourth-year SC head coach to demonstrate improvement and a stronger culture this season.

Most damning is that the team seems to lack toughness and the ability to close out games. In 2024 Riley's squad lost 27-24 at Michigan after leading 24-20 with seven minutes to play, giving up a 10-play, 89-yard drive after scoring a go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Tackling issues plagued the Trojans all season. They fell 24-17 at Minnesota in October, giving up 14 points in the 4th quarter, losing the game on Gopher quarterback Max Brosner's sneak on 4th and goal with 56 seconds to play.

No. 4 Penn State edged them in overtime in The Coliseum 33-30 in a game where the Men of Troy could not stop Nittany Lion tight end Tyler Warren, who caught 17 passes for 224 yards and a touchdown.

The Trojans led 20-6 at halftime.

It got worse when they dropped road games at Maryland, 29-18, and Washington, 26-21, giving up 15 points in the last 10 minutes to the Terps, stopped twice in the fourth quarter in Seattle.

It got so bad by the end of the year that by the week of their 49-35 loss to Notre Dame, there was talk of backing out of the 100-year rivalry. With the series set to expire after the game in 2026, the Irish have won six of the last seven.

The Trojans haven't won the national title or made the playoffs in 20 seasons. They've finished in the AP Top Ten once since 2006, in 2016 under Clay Helton.

Both boosters and beat writers are tired of mediocrity, but Riley seems a year away or more from relief: He and new GM Chad Bowden have amassed the country's No. 1 recruiting class for 2026 with an eye-popping 31 commitments, but those players, even if they hold on to them, won't impact the roster fully until 2027.

Even with an $80 million buyout, the coach might not have that much time. Fox college football analyst Joel Klatt thinks Riley is on the hot seat unless he makes the playoffs.

Another Fox football mouthpiece, talk show host Colin Cowherd theorizes that the high cost of competing in today's marketplace might buy more time for the embattled coach.

The Big Ten's informal media poll has the Trojans in the middle of the pack for 2025 with road games at Illinois, Notre Dame (nonconference), Nebraska and Oregon. They miss Penn State and Ohio State in the league schedule rotation.

The optimistic view is that they're improved with an established starting quarterback in Jayden Maiava, a transfer from UNLV who played in seven games and started four, taking over at the end of the year from the departed Miller Moss.

Maiava threw for 1,201 yards and 11 touchdowns with 9 picks. His completion percentage of 59.8% remains unimpressive in an Air Raid offense, though he was more accurate with the Rebels as a freshman, hitting 63.5 percent while passing for 3,058 yards.

The Trojans expect a big improvement on defense, where safety Kamari Ramsey is the defensive leader and second-year coordinator D'Anton Lynn has worked to instill a new toughness.

Last season the unit improved from 118th in scoring defense in 2023 to 51st in 2024, still 87th in yards per play defense at 5.83 after being 104th the year before.

The trend is positive, but to quiet voices like Plaschke and big-time donors, it has to translate into wins.