Five years, and no playoff.
Five years, and one win over a top-10 team.
Five years, and one win over a ranked opponent on the road.
Five years, and enough.
The Lincoln Riley era needs to be put out of its misery after one more smackdown Saturday in a 27-13 loss to defending champion Indiana at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington.
In the wake of another turnover-ridden, penalty-marred, underachieving-tainted loss, USC officials need to text their coach with the exact word he used when he oddly ended his postgame news conference after the victory against Ohio State.
Adios.
Quick, can you catch him on the tarmac?
Riley needs to be fired even if he wins his last two games and finishes with a 9-3 record because that’s not good enough to make the College Football Playoff, which means it’s not good enough.
Riley needs to be fired even if he can somehow engineer a win in two weeks in the season finale against UCLA because he already has surrendered all the local buzz to Bob Chesney and his dream machine.
Riley needs to be fired as soon as that UCLA game ends. Officials should let some interim handle the lame bowl game while using the month to try and fix the giant mistake they made.
Yes, Lincoln Riley was a big, fat mistake, a $110-million mistake whose erasure is now worth a buyout at any cost.
In five years, his 42-21 mark is only percentage points better than Clay Helton’s 46-24 mark when he was fired.
In five years, he has beaten only one top-10 team, he’s 6-16 against top-25 opponents, and he’s 1-8 against ranked opponents on the road.
The game against No. 9 Indiana was his last chance to save himself, his last chance to make the playoffs for the first time, his last chance to make good on the promise of all those billboards seen around town.
“The Time Is: Now.”
Turns out, “The Time is Never.”
Against an Indiana team playing without its starting quarterback or starting running back, the Trojans racked up 87 yards in penalties, committed three turnovers, missed two field goal attempts and generally wasted a good effort with undisciplined mistakes.
The game was actually tied until late in the third quarter, but the Trojans have been outgained by a dozen yards this year in the fourth quarter, and so they folded again.
“Our guys believe … in crunch time we play well,” Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said to CBS. “We took it over when we had to.”
The Trojans clearly don’t believe, and if they do, they don’t show it. They never take over when they have to. This was just the latest in a season filled with collapses.
There was the loss to Oregon that featured Riley essentially tolerating violent and taunting behavior by Desman Stephens II after the linebacker knocked quarterback Dante Moore out of the game.
There was the loss to Wisconsin in which USC had minus-17 yards rushing. Seriously, how do you finish with minus-17 yards rushing?
Then there was Saturday, when the Trojans gained 409 yards against the nation’s fourth-ranked defense and still lost because they gave up 451.
Indiana scored first, a touchdown on its first possession, then the Trojans countered with a field goal before Indiana kicked a field goal to seemingly cement its first-half lead at 10-3.
USC coach Lincoln Riley looks toward the field during a loss to Wisconsin on Oct. 24.
(Ross Harried / Associated Press)
But in the final moments of the half, the Trojans came alive, with USC capitalizing on a Deven Bryant interception to cover 60 yards in 16 seconds and finish the half with a seven-yard touchdown pass from Jayden Maiava to Zacharyus Williams to tie the score 10-10.
The teams exchanged field goals to start the third quarter before the Hoosiers used two big plays to drive 75 yards and score the go-ahead touchdown in the final minutes of the third quarter on a one-yard plunge by Khobie Martin after his 37-yard run.
The Trojans responded with a 65-yard drive that ended in failure, sunk by their second missed field goal, a shanked 27-yard attempt by Caden Chittenden.
The Trojans launched another long drive minutes later, but they were stopped when the Hoosiers’ Isaiah Jones intercepted Maiava at the 7-yard line with 6:35 remaining.
The Hoosiers responded with a touchdown drive capped by a daring 42-yard touchdown pass from Grant Wilson to Charlie Becker, and that was that.
“We had some real opportunities to win this game. … Play for play, we’re probably even,” Riley said afterward. “We had too many mistakes.”
Those mistakes included three dropped interceptions, which turned into 10 Indiana points.
“We’ve definitely come a long way as a program, but we still have a little ways to go,” Riley said.
With this kind of talent, Riley is right: They’re close. But as a coach who seems better suited as an offensive coordinator than a leader, he’s not the man to carry the Trojans over the finish line.
“I believe in myself. … We know how close we are. … We’re gonna keep battling. We will get there,” Riley said.
There’s one thing he said in his postgame news conference about which there can be no argument. “This needs to be a championship-level program,” he said.
He’s right. That’s why his continued presence as the boss is so wrong.