playKyle BonaguraNov 15, 2026, 02:32 AM ETCloseCovers college football.Joined ESPN in 2014.Attended Washington State University.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsFor a couple of weeks, it looked as if Lincoln Riley and USC might have turned the corner. Their win against then-No. 2 Ohio State on Halloween breathed new life into a season that was on life support and allowed for the possibility of the Trojans sneaking into the College Football Playoff.But as quickly as the Trojans appeared on the cusp of being competitively relevant, they faded back into obscurity, losing 27-13 at No. 9 Indiana, all but ensuring they won’t be playing meaningful football in December.This has been the Lincoln Riley experience in Los Angeles. They show up in fits and starts, dazzling with individual performances, but wilt before accomplishing anything meaningful.In Year 5, Riley is 42-21, putting his winning percentage (66.6) only fractionally better than his predecessor, Clay Helton (65.7). Riley’s reported annual salary is more than $11 million, meaning he has been paid more than $50 million to oversee an extended period of stagnation.Speaking after the loss to Indiana, Riley framed things differently.”We’ve definitely come a long way as a program,” Riley said, “but we’ve still obviously got a little ways to go.”A long way?
USC might fall out of the CFP top 25 this week. The determination that this somehow represents progress is a curious calculation, especially because after last season, he said the program’s championship window was finally open.”Honestly, now it’s just time to go do it,” he told ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg in the spring. “It’s time. The program’s ready for it.”What’s especially damning about these comments is how disconnected they are from the reality of modern college football.
The days of needing multiple seasons to build a championship-caliber program are over.Asking USC fans to remain patient while Bob Chesney has UCLA undefeated in Year 1 almost comes off as insulting. Especially in the immediate wake of a loss to Indiana, which just won a national title in Curt Cignetti’s second season.This is a cruel business. Had USC beaten Indiana, the Trojans would have remained in the playoff conversation, and the narrative surrounding Riley might have shifted dramatically. Instead, he’s squarely back on the hot seat after losing a road game in which USC was the underdog against the reigning national champions.With a reported buyout that could exceed $70 million, though, he’s hardly a sympathetic figure.The problem, of course, is that changing coaches doesn’t guarantee anything.
Look at Michigan. The Wolverines turned to one of the most respected coaches in the business, Kyle Whittingham, and now — after a listless 31-7 loss to Oregon — will need to upset either UCLA or Ohio State to avoid a losing season.Could Whittingham be one-and-done? It seems unlikely, but given the sharp decline, it’s a conversation that undoubtedly would be taking place if Michigan had a permanent athletic director.While USC is grappling with a coach who has underachieved and Michigan is being forced to consider a quick hook, Clemson is facing a completely different dynamic. What happens when the coach responsible for the greatest era in program history is also the one overseeing its decline?Clemson lost 20-6 to last-place Georgia Tech on Saturday, the Tigers’ second straight game without an offensive touchdown and their lowest-scoring performance at home since 2003.Unlike Riley and Whittingham, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney has a vault full of goodwill.
He has coached Clemson to four CFP national championship games, winning two. The idea that Clemson should move on from him seems incredibly unfair given everything he has accomplished. He set a standard that was essentially impossible to maintain and that ultimately has made back-to-back mediocre seasons qualify as failure.For all the uncertainty surrounding these coaching situations and some others, Saturday didn’t offer much that changed the complexion of the season.Most of the teams expected to win did exactly that. Georgia hammered Missouri, Alabama did enough to get past Vanderbilt and Texas survived a scare at LSU, as did Utah at Arizona.
Kentucky’s loss to Florida was a notable exception, but for the most part, the teams in the playoff picture did little to change the conversation.Jump to: Vintage Pac-12 After Dark A Sunday SEC showdown Texas rallies vs. LSU Rank Wake higher UCLA’s turnaround Closing bellVintage Pac-12 After DarkThe Utah Utes woke up in Salt Lake City on Saturday morning, flew to Arizona and escaped with one of the most thrilling victories of the college football season, beating Arizona 40-39.Because of the FAA ground stop, Utah couldn’t get to Tucson on Friday as planned, forcing an unusual game day and a delayed start that resulted in the game kicking off at 8:30 p.m. local time. The logistical chaos was only the primer for how the game played out.The game featured seven lead changes, with the final one coming on a 70-yard touchdown pass from Devon Dampier to Creed Whittemore with 2:35 left. That score came less than a minute after Arizona took a 39-33 lead.play1:11Utah survives, takes down Arizona to remain undefeatedInstead, the Utes found another way to win, improving to 10-0 and extending the nation’s longest winning streak to 16 games.
The win also clinched Utah a place in the Big 12 title game because with only two games remaining in conference play — at TCU, West Virginia — they can finish no worse than tied with BYU for second place and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.In reality, the Utes probably have to win just one of their remaining two games to secure a place in the College Football Playoff. Life is good for first-year coach Morgan Scalley.Oklahoma vs. Ole MissAmid Friday’s nationwide FAA ground stop that threw travel plans into chaos, credit goes to the teams and conferences that scrambled to find alternative arrangements and kept Saturday’s college football schedule largely intact. From lengthy bus rides to last-minute flight changes and delayed kickoffs, teams across the country found ways to adapt to an unprecedented logistical challenge.And then there was Ole Miss.play1:51The details behind Ole Miss-Oklahoma being moved to SundayOf all the teams impacted by the unprecedented disruption, the Rebels were the only ones unable to make arrangements to play Saturday.
Instead, the SEC moved their game at Oklahoma to Sunday, a decision that understandably infuriated Sooners athletic director Roger Denny.”I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that they can’t find a way to get here,” he said. “My concern is the level at which they were pushed to find a way to get here.”It’s a fair line of thinking. Ole Miss explained that its charter crew ran into duty-time restrictions and that crew wouldn’t have been able to fly until Saturday afternoon “at the earliest.” No one is denying there were logistical challenges, but — to Denny’s point — it’s a bad look that even with all the money and influence in the SEC, Ole Miss was the only team unable to find a solution.Ole Miss also said it determined it was too late to send its players on a bus trip of more than eight hours. Under normal circumstances, that would be a perfectly reasonable position.
Nobody expects a major college football program to spend eight hours on a bus the night before a game.But these weren’t normal circumstances.Tulane, for example, was already on the runway when the ground stop went into effect. Rather than wait for another flight, the Green Wave loaded onto buses for a 5½-hour drive to Houston, where their game against Rice was pushed back a couple of hours.The logistical challenge of moving a football game expected to draw more than 80,000 fans to a different day was exponentially greater than what Ole Miss faced in adjusting its travel plans. Instead of finding a way to get one team to Norman, the SEC chose a solution that inconvenie
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