Paul Finebaum doubles down on his criticism of Lincoln Riley as a head coach

Paul Finebaum is one of the loudest voices in the college football media landscape. And for some reason, he's turned his verbal guns squarely at USC head coach Lincoln Riley.

Following Big Ten Media Days, Finebaum went on ESPN's First Take to discuss Riley. He did not pull any punches in his assessment calling Riley a "disaster".

“I think he has an enormous amount to prove because quite frankly, I think he’s been a disaster,” Finebaum said.

“Let’s go back three years,” Finebaum said. “Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC, it was announced at this moment in time, and what did Lincoln Riley do? He ran away.

“He did not want to deal with the Southeastern Conference at OU, and he took what he thought was an easier course, so he goes out to Southern Cal, he takes Caleb Williams with him. Good first year, but since then, everything has gone wrong.”

After going 11-3 in his debut season in Los Angeles and helping Caleb Williams capture the Heisman Trophy, Riley put forth just an 8-5 campaign in 2023. It was one that saw Williams fail to take a step forward while the USC defense was ineffective (and that's being kind).

Now, Riley is somewhat of a college football lightning rod and he seems to be catching plenty of heat from Finebaum.

“I thought last year was one of the worst coaching jobs I’ve ever seen,” Finebaum said. “Quite frankly, had I been the athletic director, I would have fired Lincoln Riley because he’s yet to show, after many years as a head coach, he knows anything about defense. He’s gone through defensive coordinators. He just simply couldn’t handle it. 

“And now things are going to be five times worse in the Big Ten. On top of that, a number of his top players are bailing out. This is a guy who owned LA for about a half a minute, and quite frankly, next year at this time, I think he’ll likely be an assistant in the NFL — if he’s that lucky.”

As if that wasn't enough, Finebaum appeared on Friday's episode of the Dan Patrick Show where he doubled down on his thoughts about Riley.

"I did say a lot of things about Lincoln Riley, recently and I meant them," he said. "I don't think he's a great elite coach. And I know the pushback is, 'Look at what he did at Oklahoma'. I know what he did there. He inherited a masterpiece from Bob Stoops and yes, he was able to maneuver and finesse Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray into Heisman Trophies and he nearly got one for Jalen Hurts, and he did get one for Caleb Williams.

"It's really what he hasn't done that's so noteworthy. He hasn't won a championship and he hasn't really come close because Lincoln Riley has forgotten one of those tenets of defense, that special teams, offense, and, can we all say it in unison...defense. He's never been on speaking terms with defense in his career."

Now, we must all remember that Finebaum is paid to be a fire starter. His job is to generate interest by throwing out hot takes as fast as he can and seeing who he can rile up. He almost admitted as much to Patrick, in fact.

Still, his argument isn't without some merit. Riley is being paid like an elite head coach and he needs to start producing elite results.

Certainly, 2024 is the most important season of Riley's career because the heat is starting to ramp up. Influential voices like Finebaum's are paying close attention and spouting out derogatory comments about the USC head man. That's the first step in a marquee coach's seat growing warm. Of course, Riley can quiet all the noise by putting together a strong showing this fall. Here's hoping he proves Finebaum wrong this season.