As college football endures a historic season of firings, the coaching carousel is already spinning with rumors.
Some of the top programs in the country—including LSU, Penn State, Florida and Auburn—will be looking to fill their open head football coaching role in the next few weeks. One of those names to emerge as a potential candidate in several destinations is Lincoln Riley, who is laboring through his fourth season at USC.
Those rumors caught even more fire earlier this week when college football analyst Josh Pate said on the podcast to, “Keep an eye on Lincoln Riley at USC.”
Following the Trojans’ 38–17 win over Northwestern on Friday night, Riley briefly addressed the rumors in his postgame press conference.
“I’ve been underwater for the last five days, I feel like,” Riley said. “You guys know what I sacrificed to be here. I’m where I need to be.”
Riley was hired at USC in November 2021 after five successful seasons at Oklahoma where he guided the Sooners to a College Football Playoff appearance three times. He led the Trojans to an 11–3 record in his first season at the helm with eventual No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams at quarterback, but USC fell short of expectations the next two seasons, going 8–5 and 7–6.
In 2025, Riley has the Trojans rolling again. USC beat No. 15 Michigan back on Oct. 11 and, at 7–2 following the win over Northwestern—which included one of the wackiest fake punts of the year—the only blemishes on the Trojans’ résumé are losses to No. 23 Illinois and No. 13 Notre Dame.
The Trojans have a big opportunity ahead of them the next three weeks to finish out the season on a high note with matchups against No. 20 Iowa, No. 9 Oregon and rival UCLA awaiting. It sounds like Riley is planning to be on the sideline for whatever bowl game USC lands instead of chasing his next coaching gig.
Or so he says, anyway.
Lincoln Riley’s coaching history
YEAR
SCHOOL
RECORD
BOWL (W/L)
2017
Oklahoma
12–2
Rose Bowl (L)
2018
Oklahoma
12–2
Orange Bowl (L)
2019
Oklahoma
12–2
Peach Bowl (L)
2020
Oklahoma
9–2
Cotton Bowl (W)
2021
Oklahoma
10–2
2022
USC
11–3
Cotton Bowl (L)
2023
USC
8–5
Holiday Bowl (W)
2024
USC
7–6
Las Vegas Bowl (W)
2025
USC
7–2
TOTAL
88–26
