For Lincoln Riley, USC’s loss to Penn State is just the latest disappointment in a string of them: ‘It always falls on me’

LOS ANGELES — The joyful roars from the adjoining Penn State locker room boomed by way of the LA Coliseum’s skinny partitions on Saturday night as a throng of reporters waited for USC head coach Lincoln Riley to handle one other painful loss.

“We personal L.A.!” shouted one of many victorious Nittany Lions.

“L.A. is our metropolis!” a Penn State teammate howled in response.

When Riley got here to the rostrum a couple of minutes later, he made little effort to cover his frustration over what he described as a “actually tough loss.” USC fell to the nation’s fourth-ranked group 33-30 in additional time regardless of constructing a two-touchdown halftime lead, opening a seven-point fourth-quarter lead and driving into Penn State territory with an opportunity to win the sport within the closing minutes of regulation.

The latest second-half collapse stung all of the extra for USC as a result of it marked the Trojans’ third one-score lack of the season. They beforehand suffered two excruciating Massive Ten highway setbacks, surrendering a go-ahead last-minute landing at Michigan on Sept. 21 and squandering a late seven-point lead at Minnesota two weeks later.

“The fact is we’ve performed the hardest schedule within the nation the primary six video games and we’ve had an opportunity to win each single sport,” Riley mentioned. “That’s onerous to do. To place your self within the place to win these video games is friggin’ onerous to do.

“I perceive that good shouldn’t be going to be seen by the skin world proper now as a result of they’re going to deal with our report and the truth that we’ve misplaced three video games on the final play. I perceive it. That’s a part of it. All of us knew this once we signed up for big-boy soccer. We’ve bought to do a greater job on the finish of video games. I’ve to do a greater job, our coaches, our gamers. As a result of we’re doing too many good issues to place ourselves in conditions the place we’ve the lead and we will win.”

There’s no denying that USC is a couple of clutch performs or well timed stops from the place it desires to be, however that doesn’t alter the tough actuality dealing with the Trojans. At 3-3 general, they’re not a sensible contender to make the School Soccer Playoff. They may win out and really seemingly not even sniff the 12-team subject.

Worse but, there’s little cause to imagine that USC can get on that form of second-half roll. It is a program that has misplaced all of the momentum it had when Riley got here aboard. USC has misplaced eight of its previous 13 video games previously calendar yr. That equals the worst 13-game stretch that Clay Helton ever produced.

These struggles have sapped a lot of the keenness that accompanied Riley’s arrival three years in the past. Saturday’s crowd of 75,250 supplied a tepid response every time the Coliseum’s in-house DJ demanded, “Come on, you’ve bought to get loud!” There have been so many pockets of Penn State blue and white within the crowd that a number of occasions the Nittany Lions’ bench gestured for extra noise.

When requested how a lot accountability he takes for the state of this system, Riley bristled on the query.

“It at all times falls to me,” Riley mentioned. “When have I ever shied from the accountability? I at all times take it. I’m the pinnacle coach. It’s all my job. Imagine me, there’s no person taking extra accountability than I’m, so I don’t know the place that line of questioning comes from.”

Ever since 2010, when Pete Carrol bolted to the NFL amid an NCAA investigation, USC has searched in useless for a succesful alternative. Lane Kiffin was famously fired on the LAX tarmac after a poor begin to his fourth season. Steve Sarkisian didn’t even final two years because of private issues. Interim coach Ed Orgeron charmed USC gamers and alumni however didn’t get a vote of confidence from the administration. Then, with USC brief on money and determined for stability, Clay Helton stored the job for seven largely forgettable years.

When he fired Helton two video games right into a humiliating eight-loss 2021 season, then-USC athletic director Mike Bohn vowed to discover a successor able to “profitable nationwide championships and restoring USC soccer to glory.” Enter Riley, seemingly the antidote to USC’s lengthy, incestuous historical past of hiring head coaches with solely Trojan ties.

Riley grew up in Muleshoe, Texas, a tiny speck of a city simply 22 miles from the New Mexico border. He succeeded Bob Stoops at Oklahoma in 2017 and over the subsequent 5 seasons produced a 55-10 report, 4 Massive 12 championships, three School Soccer Playoff berths and two Heisman Trophy winners.

On a raucous late-November night time in 2022, Riley appeared to have USC on its method to recapturing its glittering previous. The Trojans outclassed Notre Dame to enhance to 11-1 in Riley’s debut season. Caleb Williams dazzled a sold-out, star-studded Coliseum crowd with each downfield dart he delivered and each sure sack he escaped. USC wanted just one extra victory to clinch its first berth within the School Soccer Playoff.

Then got here Utah 47, USC 24.

And Tulane 46, USC 45.

And months of scrutiny surrounding Riley’s unwillingness to maneuver on from embattled defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.

It’s by no means simple to fireplace an in depth pal, however Riley’s cussed loyalty to Grinch triggered him to lose the belief of many USC followers. He didn’t half methods with Grinch till final November after USC had fallen to 119th out of the 130 groups within the Soccer Bowl Subdivision in yards allowed and 121st in factors allowed.

This yr’s protection has been respectable beneath new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, however Riley’s offense has slipped within the absence of Williams, the previous Heisman Trophy winner. Inheritor obvious Miller Moss has thrown 5 interceptions in his previous 4 video games, his efficiency hampered by USC’s lack of ability to dam edge rushers.

Riley demonstrated why he’s referred to as an offensive mastermind within the first half in opposition to Penn State on Saturday when he drew up play after play exploiting USC’s superior skill-position velocity with out exposing its move safety points. Essentially the most memorable was a intelligent first-quarter faux reverse that fooled half Penn State’s protection, enabling freshman Quinten Joyner to go 75 yards all however untouched.

Penn State rallied within the second half behind tight finish Tyler Warren’s faculty record-breaking 17-catch, 224-yard night time. Time after time, Penn State moved Warren round, lining him up within the backfield, at tight finish or cut up out vast. Time after time, USC’s secondary misplaced observe of him. Early within the third quarter, Warren even snapped the ball, ran downfield nearly undetected and caught a 32-yard landing move.

“We knew he was going to be a problem coming in,” Riley mentioned. “We had a pair protection busts and I feel that’s the factor we’ll look again on. Once you play a extremely good participant like that, you simply wish to make him earn it.”

What Riley may also look again on had been a pair of fourth-quarter fourth-and-longs that Penn State was capable of convert. These “loopy performs,” as Riley known as them, arrange a 14-yard game-tying landing move from Drew Allar to operating again Nicholas Singleton.

USC superior into Penn State territory on its closing drive of regulation, Riley bleeding the clock to arrange a third-and-6 from the 45-yard line with 14 seconds remaining. Riley mentioned he felt good about his kicker’s leg if USC had transformed. Moss as a substitute overthrew for an premature interception.

Time beyond regulation roulette ensued, and luck but once more wasn’t on USC’s facet. Penn State followers behind the top zone celebrated when Michael Lantz pushed a 45-yard subject objective vast left. Then it was the Nittany Lions’ bench that spilled onto the sector with pleasure after PSU kicker, Ryan Barker, hit the game-winner from 36 yards.

Moss known as the loss “excruciating,” but in addition struck a hopeful tone when noting how shut it was.

“That’s the No. 4 group within the nation,” Moss mentioned. “What does that make us?”

When Riley was requested after the sport if there was a single second that he’ll dwell on from the Penn State comeback, he supplied a window into how onerous he has taken USC’s latest struggles. He mentioned he didn’t see his children for 4 nights this week as a result of he was working such lengthy hours to arrange for the Penn State sport.

“I take into consideration this each second,” Riley mentioned. “Once I fall asleep, I dream about it. And I get up fascinated by it. So I’ll take into consideration all of it.

“It’s only a actually tough loss. There’s actually no method to sugarcoat that.”