With some Week 0 games already done, the 2025 college football season is finally here, and many teams, including Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans, have a lot to prove. While many believe he should be fired, some analysts believe that USC is probably keeping him, and that includes Colin Cowherd.
During his appearance on “The Joe Klatt Show,” host Joe Klatt asked him what he thinks of head coach Lincoln Riley in particular, and Cowherd believes he cannot be fired because USC is already losing money because of NIL, and firing Riley would only make things worse.
“The NIL, you know, these coaches that all hate it, it actually makes many of the coaches unfireable,” said Cowherd. “Because if I’m spending $18 million on players, you can’t go to a booster and go, “Hey, by the way, can you buy out Lincoln Riley for 72 million and pay the next coach 80 million?” And he’s like, “I’m already giving you 7 million a year for players.” So the truth is it gives Lincoln Riley’s unfireable.”
He noted that schools are now struggling to make NIL payments these days, and firing a coach like Lincoln Riley would just cost the school more. He also added that he does not think USC can beat the best schools in their conference, notably Oregon, but he does believe that the school has some good players on the defensive end.
Riley, who previously coached at Oklahoma, is particularly hated by Sooner fans, especially after he left the school abruptly and went to USC. Many at USC also want him gone, with the team previously struggling on defense.
USC and Lincoln Riley Still Have a Lot To Go After a Mediocre Season
USC has one of the most elite college football programs in the country, with the school boasting new facilities and training centers for its student-athletes. This has led many fans to get angry at Lincoln Riley, as after getting all that shiny new stuff, the head coach still had quite a mediocre season for 2024-2025.
While the new facilities promise to help player development, many fans have grown frustrated with their current head coach as they feel he could have developed the football team much faster and won even more games, even beating some of their stronger Big Ten rivals like Oregon and Ohio State.
Jayden Maiava is expected to return as the new QB1 after he started in USC’s final four games of the season, though he still has plenty to go to prove himself. He is expected to try and build trust with Ja’Kobi Lane and Makai Lemon, the team’s top receivers.
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