Ryan Abraham: Lincoln Riley Has Lost the Fan Base, But New Hires Look to Bring the Fans Back | USC

Ryan Abraham, InsideTroy.com joins 365 Sports to discuss his thoughts on Lincoln Riley hiring D’Anton Lynn as Defensive Coordinator and North Dakota State’s Matt Entz to beef up the USC defense, his thoughts on the impact this will have on Lincoln Riley, and more.
With Craig Smoak, David Smoak, & Paul Catalina

[@westcoastnative2523]

The problem with USC since Pete Carroll is they're too soft. They're too finesse. I remember the USC teams of old when they would not only blow out teams. They would beat down teams into submission. USC use to strike fear into the opposing offenses the same way Jack tatum used to strike fear into wide receivers when he played with the raiders. Nobody fears USC anymore. Hell, teams look forward to playing against USC because they know it's going to be a stat game. Look at what Oregon did to Colorado vs what USC did to Colorado. That game told me everything i needed to know about the 2023 Trojans. Well that game and Arizona. I remember in 2019 when USC played Iowa in the holiday bowl. I literally sat there in front of my TV screen and watched Iowa run three QB sneaks in a row and pushed the pile to almost a TD. They showed USC Mercy and didn't do it a fourth time. They just ran the ball in for a TD. How Clay Helton wasn't fired after that blowout was beyond me. And don't get me started on the run game. That's another two or three paragraphs. 😆

[@SportZFan4Ever]

Yup. Not only did USC under Pete play Dominant Defense, they ran the ball down teams throats. And because they ran the ball so physically they had explosive plays down field. And Pete had a System and Identity in place where he would get Highly rated recruit classes and just plug and play. Same way Alabama is doing today. LRiley is OVERWHELMED at USC because he's NEVER Built a Football Program. He's been handed everything. He understands now that USC is NOT Oklahoma. The standard of Expectations every year is National Championship.

[@mattrancho]

EXACTLY!!!! How Clay Hellton wasn’t fired after the 2018 season was pathetic. Lynn Swan is an embarrassment. Same with Pat Haden, & ask the horrible people in charge of USC. They hired soft weak minded offensive coaches since Carroll. I just don’t know how they keep screwing up the hired. The worst hire was Kiffin for sure. Majority of the fan base was disappointed. Sark was a bad hire (now he is doing good with Texas). I actually believed in Hellton.

[@marcusnelson1465]

SC with Pete didn't blow teams like that. They had a physical team.

[@user-wh7fr9qe2s]

@@mattrancho Patty Haden was far worse than Swann. Swann screwed up by reupping Clay. Both SC Kiffin & Sark far better than Clay. Clay & Patty Haden were the worst thing for SC the last 30 years✅

[@roderickforeman7917]

C’mon y’all LR has worked miracles, he produced a Heisman Trophy winner in his first year and had a 11-3 season. It was impossible to fix and repair the whole entire team in one season. So he decided to fix the O 1st. There are a tone of coaches that would cough up a lung to have the level of success LR has had in 2 seasons with USC. In his 1st year he beat Notre Dame and UCLA and produced a Heisman Trophy winner at QB. Now what he does need to do is win his bowl game.

[@Sportsgeek1991]

Nobody cares about individual awards

[@SportZFan4Ever]

Heisman Trophies are consolation prizes. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP is the Standard at USC.

[@rohankulkarni4763]

he will not win his bowl game in this meaningless bowl game

[@icu17siberia]

We need to get our NIL act together too. I live in the Phoenix area and I tell you.....what going on now is flat out crazy.

[@fcon2002]

USC hasn't lost the fan base, Riley has. We demanded he let Grinch go after 2022, and he ignored the problem because he was more faithful to Grinch than the people paying him. Now, he has to work hard to regain our faith, or he will continue to take the heat.

[@melroze]

Lincoln needs to have a better defense next season, because he's not going to have Caleb to bail him out in a shootout.

[@MarioBuc]

Lincoln Riley waited too long to make a change considering how bad the defense was. People are watching because Riley was hired to make a big change.

[@OogaBooga52316]

He’s only lost the fanbase of bandwagons who haven’t been there for all the ups and downs.

[@USCfan03]

Not true. I’ve been a fan since the late 70’s and he’s lost me. Lincoln Riley is struggling when it comes to recruiting. There’s alot of issues he needs to fix.

[@brentoniverson1020]

Riley hasn't been here for the ups and downs like the fans have. As of now he's following suit.

[@52mrbryant]

@@USCfan03 He's losing recruits because of not willing to pay high school players that hasn't played 1 game at the college level! BUT NOW he's mentioning NIL is critical so I believe the NIL bag will open up here real quick & watch how many recruits stay home!

[@heinzbaron9129]

When you put a garbage product on the field, at the price SC is paying for Riley, people are going to lodge grievances. Plus, there was a significant regression from year 1 to year 2, which always makes fans disappointed.

[@user-qu4ey5yy3f]

@@USCfan03 He's turned fanhood into a Bad word. Damn shame!

[@chuckgrant5395]

Hw not lost the fan base. The turn around was never going take only 2 years.

[@coreyleath4662]

Yeah some of the SC fans are insane . Saban, Kirby , Meyer , Dabbo , even Jimbo took more than 3 years to win a title . We gotta give him even more time with the 12 team playoff

[@user-qu4ey5yy3f]

@@coreyleath4662 "Saban, Kirby, Meyer, Dabbo, even Jimbo" WOULD NOT HAVE MISSED THE BOSCO MATER DEI GAME!! WILL TAKE MANY MORE THAN 3 YEARS NOW OR MANY MORE DOLLARS. This was like forgetting the anniversary day and realizing your planned dinner at the local fancy restaurant will not suffice. Only a flight to Aruba for that dinner will get you out of the Dog house now!

[@coreyleath4662]

@@user-qu4ey5yy3f Well if he doesn't prioritize California kids then I'll start to call him out. H still needs time to make us Elite enough to play with the Big Dogs on both sides of the ball 🏈.

[@SportZFan4Ever]

Tell that to Kalen DeBoar who took a 4-8 Washington Team and in 2 years is in the playoffs, 13-0 Undefeated season, on 20 game Win streak. Or how about Dan Lanning who in 2 years is 20-5 and has Oregon 10-2 playing in a New Year 6 Bowl. Lincoln Riley in 2 years is 2-7 vs Top 25. When is his rebuilding gonna start? 2025? Cuz he damn sure ain't winning a National Title in 2024.

[@coreyleath4662]

@@SportZFan4Ever Gotta give him 5 6 years just like we did Helton

[@SportZFan4Ever]

Matt Entz needs to be the USC Head Coach NOW. ...Better Resume than LRiley by far. Also he's a Defensive Coach just like Pete Carroll and Ed Orgeron. What do these 3 have in common??? NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS. Lastly, Entz has experience with navigating multi-bracket Playoff system.

[@daleallembaugh9801]

Usc still a 500 season...REAL TALK!!

[@brucerunning6153]

Fair weather fans may have lost faith in Lincoln Riley but Trojans and fans that understand how programs are built haven't.FIGHT ON!!

[@santiagoorozco28]

wasnt even that bad of a year considerting the first year he went to the conference championship on that clay helton team he needs to rebuild

[@johnwhite2576]

It’s not just the 5 losses the play was dreadful especially on defense and got worse with every game add Riley’s inability to replace his clearly failingcssst coach jimmies and the fan derision is richly deserved.

[@whousefilms]

A step in the right direction, but I don' think this is a solution. If this was the answer why hasn't it been done in the past 15+ years? At the end of the day it still need culture and chemistry.

[@brycetaylor1980]

He's such a competitor if he had been chosen for a better bowl game. He would have participated... WHAT???!!! 😅😅😅

[@gendaminoru3195]

Yes, we think CLR is a fraud and rode the Heisman coattails while paying lip service to everything else while do everything he could to pad his stats. Had he not done that CW may have become only the second time winner ever. But the scheme did not make CW a team player and expected him to be superman and make a home run on every play.

[@SportZFan4Ever]

1:38 ... Student body left/right? Under Pete Carroll USC had Explosive Offenses and Dominant Defenses. ...If USC football in 2002-2008 is "old school" then thats what USC football should be in 2023. Ryan Abraham doesn't know how to analyze USC football.

[@motap001]

What a bunch of BS. No he hasn’t. True Trojan fans never leave. I’ve been a Trojan fan along with other fans I know for decades. There’s going to be ups and downs but thats life. Stop with this nonsense….Fight On!

[@bobjones6230]

USC will be less than 500 next year

[@fpanadero2626]

At this point, They care more about 'futbol' , not football in SoCal...

[@cope4288]

Lol

[@WinstonLorde]

They should bring Jack on as the USC insider; Ryan gives canned, empty takes that anyone with a modicum of knowledge of USC can provide. He could not even give a good guess about who will be the qb in 2024. Just a wishy-washy take that told us nothing -- "it will be either Moss or someone Riley brings in." NO KIDDING!! GET JACK!

[@westcoastnative2523]

Oh I'm still riding with USC win lose and draw. I'm just stating the obvious. Clay Helton had a better tenure as head coach thru the first two seasons (Rose bowl win and PAC 12 title). Can Lincoln Riley change that? Sure. But the honeymoon phase is over. I saw how bad the defense was last year against Stanford. I'm sitting there and was like... Waaaait a minute. Stanford one of the worst teams that year (2022) and they still put up 28 on USC? Somethin isn't right. I literally sat in the Rose bowl in 2022 and watched USC give up 45 to a mediocre UCLA team. Most fans didn't see how bad the defense was until the second Utah game. They had overlooked it because they were winning. As someone who is pretty optimistic... I knew USC had no shot at winning a national championship. Not with no defense like that. UGA was giving up an average of 10 points a game vs USC giving up an average of 35+.

[@calvincamara7708]

BOomer SOoner..........

[@roderickforeman7917]

C’mon y’all LR has worked miracles, he produced a Heisman Trophy winner in his first year and had a 11-3 season. It was impossible to fix and repair the whole entire team in one season. So he decided to fix the O 1st. There are a tone of coaches that would cough up a lung to have the level of success LR has had in 2 seasons with USC. In his 1st year he beat Notre Dame and UCLA and produced a Heisman Trophy winner at QB. Now what he does need to do is win his bowl game.

[@rohankulkarni4763]

he will lose to louisville in his bowl game