'Fraudulent' take on coach Lincoln Riley at USC is wholly incomplete

There are a lot of things that can be said about coach Lincoln Riley's time at USC. To go as far as ESPN's Paul Finebaum, however, and to call it "fraudulent" is completely too far.

Everyone acknowledges that the past couple of seasons did not go the way they needed to. This is a point that is legitimate to bring up. To continually belabor it and act like anything from the past years can change right now, though, is beating a dead drum.

To then go that extra step and even say that coach Riley's tenure is "fraudulent" and that his coaching credentials should be questioned shows the analysis of someone who hasn't truly paid attention.

For some, it can be quite difficult to look beyond only the wins and losses.

Giving this statement is, in effect, saying that coach Riley does not belong at this level of football and that his skill set and aptitude would be better served at an FCS school or in Division II. Obviously, this is far from the case. Based on Finebaum's argument alone, the ESPN media personality even mentioned how well coach Riley did at Oklahoma.

Overall landscape at USC

More to the immediate point, coach Riley isn't inept. He has, after all, gone out of his way to address and admit to some of the areas that needed to be improved on and then sought out to put an effective plan into action heading into the 2025 season. To act like coach Riley is way over his head or that a Sooners program that is actually coming off a losing season is now better off without coach Riley is completely void of reality. Compare where the Trojans are in recruiting right now versus the Sooners.

Last season in particular, even in the losses, USC was competitive. There were, of course, some moments that the Trojans would have loved to have back. The product was far more polished and complete than what Finebaum and others are giving coach Riley credit for. This can only be seen, though, if one is willing to look a little bit deeper into the final record.