LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Two-thirds of the way through Lincoln Riley\u2019s second season at Southern California, the Trojans\u2019 national title chances and Caleb Williams\u2019 hopes of a Heisman Trophy repeat are all but gone.
Oh, and Riley\u2019s record through his first 22 games at USC is exactly the same as that of his comprehensively maligned predecessor, Clay Helton.
This clearly isn\u2019t 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.
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 \u2014 defeats that occurred after several weeks of steadily deteriorating play by Williams and his teammates.
\u201cDefinitely not a feeling that I want to get used to,\u201d 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. \u201cAs 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.\u201d
USC dropped to No. 24 in the AP Top 25 on Sunday, falling six spots after its fourth straight loss to the Utes. It\u2019s the Trojans\u2019 lowest ranking since Riley\u2019s arrival, but their position has slipped for five consecutive weeks now while USC\u2019s play failed to match everyone\u2019s expectations, particularly on defense.
Riley probably knows the Trojans\u2019 loftiest goals are pretty much out of reach for 2023, but he wants his team to stay focused on what\u2019s still possible.
\u201cWe don\u2019t come in every single week talking about winning a national championship, going to playoffs, and I don\u2019t know where that narrative starts,\u201d Riley said. \u201cYou come in every single week, try and fight your tail off to go play well and win a ballgame. It\u2019s a strain every week to do it, and it\u2019s a fight every week to do it. We\u2019ve won a hell of a lot more here than we\u2019ve lost. Are we satisfied at all sitting here at 6-2? Of course we\u2019re not. I mean, as much as it hurts anybody on the outside, I promise you it hurts us 10 times more.\u201d
The Trojans are Riley\u2019s team, but Williams is their clear leader on the field \u2014 and the Heisman winner isn\u2019t getting the same results as he did in his charmed LA debut.
Williams is still the consensus No. 1 prospect for the next NFL draft, but he has played three of the worst games of his college career over the past three weeks, throwing more interceptions (3) than touchdown passes (2) while getting sacked 13 times.
Williams passed for just 219 yards and a touchdown while USC needed triple overtime to fend off a clearly inferior Arizona team at home. He then threw a career-worst three interceptions and never looked comfortable at South Bend. Against Utah, he failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time at USC despite making several big plays.
Williams didn\u2019t say anything publicly about the Trojans\u2019 latest loss because Riley inexplicably refused to make players available to the media after the game. It\u2019s 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 \u2014 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\u2019s rules for covering the team. Riley then ordered a media blackout after the well-fought, narrow loss to Utah \u2014 hardly a cause for his players to feel the embarrassment or persecution Riley apparently anticipated.
While sitting alone in front of reporters Saturday night, Riley actually emphasized the reason why his media ban was an overreaction: The Trojans\u2019 season is far from over.
After a visit to struggling California next week, USC faces Washington, Oregon and UCLA in November to close the regular season. With four straight wins, USC is in the Pac-12 title mix \u2014 or with multiple losses, Riley\u2019s Trojans could be in a much worse mess.
\u201cIt\u2019s important for us to take stock of that we still sit in a very advantageous position in this conference,\u201d Riley said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got some big opportunities coming up. There\u2019s a lot left that\u2019s going to happen, and if we\u2019ll continue to fight and prepare the way that we did this week, we\u2019ll have our chances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n