As USC heads into a Halloween showdown with No. 2 Ohio State, Lincoln Riley is hearing familiar questions from a very different place than the one he came from. The Trojans’ second loss of the season has pushed his tenure further under the microscope, and for some observers, the comparison to his Oklahoma run is getting harder to ignore.
When USC brought Riley in November of 2021, the buzz was obvious. He came west with a reputation built on explosive offenses and Heisman-winning quarterbacks, the kind of résumé that promised immediate firepower. But the results in Los Angeles have not matched what he delivered with the Sooners.
Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt pointed to one issue above the rest: the ground game.
"The biggest difference between Lincoln Riley at USC and Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma is the lack of run game for the Trojans. Breadcrumbs for USC suggests that they're not even close to what they could be or anticipated that they could be, or even what I thought they were last week.
Sloppy wins are the breadcrumbs. Sloppy against Rutgers, sloppy against Washington, sloppy against Penn State.
And now, here comes Ohio State," Klatt said on The Joel Klatt Show.
Klatt doubled down on that point, saying the gap comes down to production on the ground, not the passing attack or the defense.
"Why is it different from Oklahoma for Lincoln Riley? They're run game is 103rd in the country in yards per carry.
Run game," Klatt continued. 'It's not the passing game, it's not the defense, it's the run gae. 103rd in yards per carry. 103rd.
At OU, hat were they, Joel? Number one.
They ran the football. Protected the offensive line against the pressure.
They couldn't do that against Wisconsin, they haven't been able to do that throughout the course of the year."
The contrast is stark when you line up Riley’s Oklahoma track record against what USC has shown so far. During his time with the Sooners, he helped develop multiple NFL running backs, including New England's Rhamondre Stevenson, Houston's Joe Mixon, and Cincinnati's Samaje Perine. USC has also produced NFL rushers in Houston's Woody Marks and Green Bay's Marshawn Lloyd, so backfield talent hasn’t been the clean answer.
The bigger issue has been what happens up front and what that means for the offense as a whole. King Miller leads USC with 602 total yards and four touchdowns, averaging 4.8 yards per carry, but the Trojans are still only at 3.9 yards per carry as a team. The offensive line, which was expected to be one of the team’s strengths, has also allowed 12 sacks, leaving USC ranked No. 52 in the nation in sacks allowed.
Riley’s USC teams have had individual brilliance. Caleb Williams won the Heisman Trophy in 2022 and became the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft.
Even so, the Trojans still have not reached the postseason with Riley, and they have not made it to the postseason since the CFP expanded to four teams. With the playoff now at 12 teams, the margin for error is still thin after the loss to Wisconsin.
That leaves USC staring at a brutal stretch. Ohio State, No.
4 Indiana, and No. 7 UCLA are all still on the schedule, and DraftKings Sportsbook has the Trojans priced as longshots to reach this year’s playoff.
At +1900, USC trails teams such as Iowa (+1200), Nebraska (+1200), and Oklahoma (+1700) in the odds.
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