coach Lincoln Riley\u2019s<\/a> contract, which means that until further notice the Trojans will be known as the team that\u2019s good enough to not embarrass itself but not good enough to reach the College Football Playoff.<\/p>\nIn this particular time in this particular market, that pushes USC to the margins of Los Angeles\u2019 congested sporting landscape.<\/p>\n
About to complete his fourth season with the Trojans, Riley seems to be aware of the perception of his program, or at very least what this market expects of a program defined by championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand Los Angeles is a place where people aren\u2019t going to show up just because,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to win. You have to give them something. And when you do, there\u2019s no sports town better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riley pointed to the packed Coliseum on Saturday night as evidence the Trojans were doing something right. Almost 70,000 tickets were distributed for the UCLA game.<\/p>\n
The loyalty of USC\u2019s fans, however, shouldn\u2019t be mistaken for excitement. In the eyes of the program\u2019s most fervent supporters, the team has underachieved.<\/p>\n
Riley talked up the Trojans\u2019 7-0 home record, which included victories over Michigan and Iowa, but the truth is that the season will be defined by the games that weren\u2019t won.<\/p>\n
The loss at Illinois.<\/p>\n
The loss at Notre Dame.<\/p>\n
The loss at Oregon, which effectively knocked USC out of CFP contention.<\/p>\n
As a program that defines itself by championships, the Trojans measure success on a binary scale. They\u2019re either competing for a national title or they\u2019re not. These Trojans aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Riley made the case that this season helped establish a foundation on which future teams will be built.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year was better than last year, and then next year is going to be better, even better than this, just going to keep growing and growing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"USC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764515902_140_\")
<\/p>\n
USC backup quarterback Gage Roy leaps into the arms of offensive lineman Tobias Raymond after Roy completed a two-point conversion pass against UCLA at the Coliseum on Saturday.<\/p>\n
(Gina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
He\u2019s made similar statements before, and USC\u2019s fans are still waiting for the return to glory that he promised.<\/p>\n
By now, words alone won\u2019t convince many people about the program\u2019s future. Riley will have to deliver results, and he will have to deliver them soon.<\/p>\n
The team Riley will coach next season will look a lot like the team he coached this season but almost certainly without receiver Makai Lemon. No. 2 receiver Ja\u2019Kobi Lane could also declare for the NFL draft.<\/p>\n
As much as Riley spoke about USC\u2019s improved physicality, the Trojans couldn\u2019t stop the run in any of their three defeats, which raises legitimate concerns about whether he will be able to address the problem in the coming months.<\/p>\n
The Trojans will welcome the country\u2019s top-rated recruiting class, but how many freshmen could they realistically count on to produce right away?<\/p>\n
Ryan Kartje, the Times\u2019 USC beat reporter, wrote a story last week about a situation at quarterback<\/a> involving starter Jayden Maiava and five-star freshman Husan Longstreet. Kartje raised the possibility of Longstreet entering the transfer portal if Maiava returns for his senior season.<\/p>\nIn another time or place, this would be a major story. That\u2019s basically Riley\u2019s job now, to return USC\u2019s profile to where the next quarterback controversy is front-page news. The Trojans aren\u2019t close to that at the moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The most important college football story in these parts is about the downtrodden program from Westwood and whether…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7363,43918,19357,43921,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,3289,5990,4666,43920,595,427,23138,3533,43919,8934],"class_list":["post-75620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-country","tag-downtrodden-program","tag-fourth-season","tag-future-team","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-loss","tag-market","tag-riley","tag-ryan-kartje","tag-saturday","tag-team","tag-trojans","tag-usc","tag-usc-beat-ucla","tag-victory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}