Paul Finebaum calls on USC to fire ‘fraud’ Lincoln Riley despite massive buyout
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Paul Finebaum went on ESPN’s First Take on Monday morning and told every college football fan why USC should fire Lincoln Riley.
The ESPN college football analyst was obviously reacting to the Trojans’ huge home loss to Oregon on Saturday night, during which USC couldn’t take advantage of Dante Moore departing with a concussion and still lost to Ducks backup QB Dylan Raiola.
USC trailed at halftime and after the 3rd quarter, clawed back to tie the game at 27-27 but then fell apart the rest of the way, allowing Oregon to score the final 14 points of the game to prevail, 41-27. The Trojans lost despite gaining 446 total yards, mostly because their porous defense allowed the Ducks to pile up 504 total yards on their own.
It continued a trend during Riley’s uninspiring coaching tenure at USC, during which he’s failed to win those big games that he could so often at Oklahoma. Finebaum has witnessed all of it since Riley took over in 2022 and couldn’t contain himself on Monday morning.
“Everybody knows who the fraud is. It’s Lincoln Riley. He has the same record at this point in his (USC) tenure as Clay Helton, who got fired and run off, it cost about $10 million to get rid of him and it will cost about $70 million to get rid of Lincoln Riley, but I promise you USC people it would be worth it,” Finebaum said. “This guy is bringing your program down to the gutter. … They don’t even have the best team in Los Angeles right now. That belongs to UCLA.”
Riley and the Trojans are suddenly without any margin for error when it comes to making the College Football Playoff. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about USC and the other top teams’ chances to be part of the exclusive field of 12 when it is announced in December:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
