Sep 1, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley with wife Caitlin Riley after the game against the LSU Tigers at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Lincoln Riley was viewed as a possible LSU and SEC head coach for 48 hours in November of 2021 before he went to USC and Brian Kelly left Notre Dame to become the new Tiger head coach. Now, Riley is celebrating a victory over LSU in a sharp plot twist in 2024. It’s quite a story.
The way the national media talked all offseason — all eight months without any games being played — you would have thought Lincoln Riley was a failed football coach, a guy whose career was nosediving into irrelevance. Yes, Riley did fail at USC in 2023. There’s zero question about that. Yet, wasn’t it just a little curious that the man who coached three Heisman Trophy winners before turning 40 years old, and the guy who has developed three No. 1 NFL draft picks and made three College Football Playoff appearances, was essentially being written off as an unserious coach incapable of fielding a good defense?
Yes, Riley was dumb and arrogant to double down on Alex Grinch in 2023 instead of making serious, big-boy moves to bring in a quality defensive staff. It was and is by far the worst decision of his coaching career, and it cost him. However, national media members didn’t seem to be willing to give Riley any credit whatsoever for making those big-boy moves — like a grownup, an adult — one year later. Yes, it should have happened a year ago, but Riley isn’t dumb. He saw what was going on. He knew things had to change.
So he changed them. D’Anton Lynn, Eric Henderson, Matt Entz, Doug Belk — Riley assembled an all-star team of defensive coaches. It wasn’t going to be just one guy making decisions the way Grinch did. This would be a…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/lincoln-riley-beats-brian-kelly-140925560.html
Author : Trojans Wire
Publish date : 2024-09-02 14:09:25
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