Lincoln Riley said he didn’t notice Desman Stephens II celebrating after his hit on Dante Moore appeared to seriously injure the Ducks quarterback in the second quarter of USC’s 41-27 loss to Oregon on Saturday at the Coliseum.
“I did not see it. No,” Riley said.
Riley missed Stephens exalting as Moore laid on his back, the linebacker delighting while most everyone else in the Coliseum held their collective breath after seeing Moore exhibit a fencing response — as we all know, an involuntary physical reaction to a brain injury.
Riley didn’t catch his player taunting the Oregon sideline as the Ducks watched their teammate lay prone at the USC 12-yard line. Didn’t think to correct or coach up Stephens, because he didn’t notice how the junior’s reaction fueled the melee between the teams.
USC linebacker Desman Stephens II shrugs after making a late tackle on Oregon quarterback Dante Moore that sent Moore to the hospital at the Coliseum on Saturday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Even after the game, Riley apparently wasn’t aware that Stephens was soon on the sideline thereafter shown on NBC’s broadcast, not kneeling respectfully or exhibiting concern, but smiling and dapping up teammates.
Stephens had been ejected from the game for targeting the sliding quarterback, the potential No. 1 NFL pick who had to be stabilized, strapped to the stretcher and put into an ambulance en route for Los Angeles General County Hospital. (Oregon coach Dan Lanning said after the game Moore was moving his extremities.)
And Riley had no problem with Stephens frolicking along the sideline in the second half, still in his No. 8 jersey, skipping and getting hyped with his teammates — a symbol of unrepentance and a lack of accountability. Of crass classlessness.
A symbol of USC football.
Stephens remained on the sideline, Riley said, “because he’s on our football team.”
Oh, OK.
Riley can’t see everything, of course.
The head coach can’t be responsible for all that’s happening in the course of a football game. He didn’t give up 504 yards of total offense to the Ducks. He didn’t commit the roughing-the-passer penalty that wiped out the third-and-long incompletion and led to the Oregon score that made it 34-27. He didn’t choose to go for it on fourth-and-7 with 7:15 to play — oh wait, actually, yeah, that one’s on Riley.
It wasn’t just a no-vote-of-confidence in the defense, it was the analytics, Riley said: “It was a pretty strong recommendation to go for it.”
But Jayden Maiava’s pass was incomplete, Oregon took over at USC’s 49-yard line and scored eight plays later, to make it 41-27 with 2:03 left. After that, USC — seemingly in no particular hurry — ran 13 more plays, none of them resulting in a gain longer than 16 yards.
“A hell of a game,” Riley called it.
Oregon wide receiver Dakorien Moore scores a touchdown against USC at the Coliseum on Saturday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
“We put ourselves in position to win,” he spun.
“We had all the momentum in the world,” Riley added. “But you can’t [make those mistakes] against good teams and good offenses.”
USC is supposed to be one of those teams. USC is not one of those teams.
Coming into the season, the Trojans had both the top-rated recruiting class and led the FBS with 15 returning starters, nine on offense, including Maiava in his third season in Riley’s system.
The Trojans have also just opened the $200 million Bloom Football Performance Center on campus.
Remember when Riley was hired in 2021, former USC athletic director Mike Bohn saying he would “change the landscape of college football?” For that, USC is paying Riley $12.5 million per year, reportedly more than all but five other coaches in the country.
USC coach Lincoln Riley and defensive coordinator Gary Patterson speak on the field after the Trojans’ loss to Oregon at the Coliseum on Saturday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
But Riley has yet to reach the College Football Playoff with the Trojans. And on Saturday, he was again trying to get #CameDownToACouplePlays trending.
It’s not going to catch on, Coach. Because no one in the college football world believes USC was just “a couple of plays” away Saturday.
It was a hell of a matchup: The No. 12 Trojans vs. the No. 20 Ducks, Riley trying to beat Lanning for the first time in three tries. Trying to impress the announced crowd of 75,500, which was as raucous as Riley remembered hearing in his four-plus seasons in L.A.
It was a chance for USC (4-1) to build some momentum entering the upcoming Big Ten gauntlet of games against Washington, Penn State, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Indiana.
Waiting at the end of the schedule: UCLA, led by first-year head coach Bob Chesney, who engineered a 54-3 victory over Maryland on Saturday. He has the Bruins 4-0 and has roused their hibernating fan base and infused it with hope and belief and good vibes — everything that’s lacking from Riley’s program.
But how can a head coach who’s blind to even calamitous events occurring around him — and how those might represent his program and his university — be expected to monitor the details that it takes to beat a team like Oregon (3-1)?
And if he can’t beat a not-great Ducks team — without its starting quarterback — how can he rally a fan base that’s several exits past disillusioned and fast approaching disgusted?
And if he can’t be counted on to do the right thing — or to even spot the wrong things — how can he steer the ship to a championship, which is what’s expected of him?
I don’t see it. No.