Lincoln Riley earns a pair of preseason coaching accolades

Paul Finebaum fed the Oklahoma football fan trolls yesterday by asserting Lincoln Riley will be out of Southern California by the end of the season. Perhaps more annoying is the SEC-orchestrated narrative that the USC head coach ran away from the conference. Meanwhile, Oklahoma continues to pretend life with Brett Venables (16-10 and no bowl wins) is somehow better.

Nevertheless, there is much optimism regarding Riley and the expectation that he will deliver in his third season leading the Trojans.

Riley listed on the Dodd Trophy Preseason Watch List.

We are approaching the part of the offseason where watch lists for all the major college football awards are published. The Dodd Trophy is among the first with a list of 21 Group 4 and Independent head coaches. The Dodd Trophy is awarded to the nation's top college football coach at the end of every season.

Riley is joined by Ohio State's Ryan Day, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, and Penn State's James Franklin as Big Ten head coaches to make the list. Four Big 12 coaches were listed, but Oklahoma's Brent Venables was not among them.

Florida State's Mike Norvell is the reigning Dodd Trophy Award winner.

Riley listed as a Top 3 Big Ten head coach by CBS Sports.

CBS Sports released its preseason list of the Top 10 head coaches in the Big Ten. Riley was ranked No. 3, behind Day and Oregon's Dan Lanning. What's most interesting is the network's prerogative that Riley and Lanning belong ahead of Big Ten veterans in Franklin and Ferentz.

It's refreshing to see the professionals who study college football give Riley his due.

We're a little over a year removed since the 40-year-old head coach led USC to its first double-digit win season and conference title game (not counting the COVID-19 season) since 2017. Moreover, the SEC blowhards and pouty Oklahoma fans seem to forget that Riley is the only college football head coach to produce three Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks turned first-overall NFL draft picks. USC also looks to have a stud ready to lead the offense in Miller Moss.

Riley made the right move by replacing Alex Grinch with D'Anton Lynn as defensive coordinator and bringing in NFL defensive line coach Eric Henderson. Sources indicate the head coach's next move is to replace Dave Emerick as general manager and get a better grip on the NIL game. Such a move might come sooner than later, especially if USC loses the recruiting battle for JuJu Lewis.

Of course, the negative vibes toward Riley won't stop until the Trojans win in the Big Ten. We don't expect USC to make a run at the Big Ten title in year one, but Riley has the talent to do so. Either way, we're confident the Trojans will be competitive enough to remain in the conversation for an at-large College Football Playoff bid in 2024.