LOS ANGELES — Lincoln Riley didn’t sleep much on Saturday night.
The late-game run that tied USC with Oregon haunted him; a cruel reminder not just of the lack of closure in the eventual 41-27 loss, but also in Riley’s tenure as head coach of the Trojans.
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Three straight losses to Oregon. A 5-15 record against ranked teams. Going 2-16 against ranked Big Ten teams over the past two seasons.
“To put ourselves in that position to win it, not capitalize on it – it guts you,” Riley told reporters. “I mean it, just it does. My job is when Sunday morning comes around, I got to get up, and I gotta go lead the charge.
“I can’t walk up in there anything else but focused and hungry, motivated on what we got to do better.”
The Trojans (4-1 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) are licking their wounds with Saturday’s game against Washington (3-1, 0-1) and even more daunting opponents around the corner, even though their rose-tinted words feel like Band-Aids on a hemorrhage.
The first step toward accountability after the loss was issuing a one-game suspension to linebacker Desman Stephens II, who delivered a hit on Ducks quarterback Dante Moore that sent him to the hospital.
Stephens was also seen celebrating after the hit, which Riley said he didn’t see during the game.
It was a shocking moment, especially considering this was the same player who went out of his way to shake the hands of every reporter in the postgame press conference after USC’s season-opening victory over San José State.
“Knowing him like I do, do I believe deep down in my heart that he was celebrating over an injured player? No,” Riley said.
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“It’s a little difficult to describe to everybody what it’s like in the arena when you haven’t been in the arena. It’s highly competitive. It’s highly emotional. And so I’m disappointed with what he did, and he needs to have more awareness because it was a serious situation.”
Taking ownership and honestly acknowledging the current, struggling state of the USC program could also prevent the season from slipping away.
Throughout this season, Riley and the team have preferred to internalize discussions regarding accountability within the team and ignore the outside noise from fans, social media and traditional media outlets, both local and national.
Running back King Miller said he hasn’t deleted his social media, but he rarely looks at it.
“I don’t think there is any challenge with (ignoring outside noise),” Miller said “I think it’s what we all came here to do. We ain’t come here for the outside noise, for what everybody has to say or whatever. We came here to play football at the end of the day, so I think that’s what we’re focused on next week.”
The remainder of the season could determine Riley’s future with USC, and it could lead to other structural changes within the program as well. Tough road games at Penn State (3-1) and No. 6 Indiana (4-0), as well as a home game against No. 5 Ohio State (3-1) and a rivalry matchup with an up-and-coming No. 23 UCLA team (4-0), remain on the schedule.
The head coach, who earns $11.5 million annually, is taking it day by day.
“I woke up – sun came up Sunday morning, fortunately,” he said, “and I came back up here. Got to work. Staff got to work. Guys were great on Sunday night, and the week has gone very well up to this point.”
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