Lincoln Riley’s big win at USC comes with one notable improvement

It was just the first week. It was an interconference game.

It doesn’t matter.

It was Lincoln Riley’s biggest win since his highly touted arrival at USC. His most important triumph. The kind of complete performance that was an anomaly for the Trojans.

USC didn’t beat the national title favorite in Las Vegas on Sunday, let’s admit it. LSU began the season ranked 13th in the country, having lost Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels and star wide receiver Malik Nabers to the NFL. The Tigers were projected to finish fifth in the mighty SEC as College Football Playoff favorites.

Still, it was a Riley victory, a victory over a quality program in the nation’s top league, because of what it could mean for USC. That was after a dismal 8-5 season. This is a program that hadn’t won more than 11 games since 2008 — when Pete Carroll was still the coach — and it joins the Big Ten this year. Expectations were low, a season filled with uncertainty. Caleb Williams was gone. A new defensive coordinator, D’Anton Lynn, was brought in. USC was 23rd a year ago, the lowest in Riley’s history. Remember, this is the coach who took over from Bob Stoops at Oklahoma in 2017 and went 55-10 in five seasons, making the playoffs four times. When he left for USC, expectations were a bit unrealistic. It took a while for the Trojans to become title contenders again, even though Williams followed Riley to the West Coast.

The last two seasons have been disappointing. The Trojans have piled up points but have been unable to stop anyone. All they had to do in Riley’s first season was win the Pac-12 title game, but Utah swept them, followed by a loss to Tulane in the Cotton Bowl. Last year was worse. After a 6-0 start, USC has lost five of six games. The defense has been a sieve, allowing 186.5 yards rushing and 34.4 points per game.

That was the biggest takeaway from the win over LSU, an improvement on that side of the ball. The Tigers were limited to 117 yards rushing and 20 points. USC had goal-line position on its first possession of the game and held LSU to field goals on its final four possessions. The defensive stars — linebackers Mason Cobb and Eric Gentry — stayed, although UCLA safety Kamari Ramsey had a big game of his own. It was no surprise that the offense put up 450 total yards under new quarterback Miller Moss. Riley is an offensive genius who has produced three different Heisman Trophy winners — Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Williams — at the position.

But defense has always been his team’s weakness. That wasn’t the case against LSU. Maybe the Tigers just aren’t very good, and in time we’ll look back on this win as less impressive. But for now, it was pretty significant. Lincoln Riley hasn’t had a better win since landing in Los Angeles.

An eye on hurricanes

I was interested in Miami before the season, and now I’m even more intrigued. Not only did the Hurricanes beat Florida in the Swamp, but the two teams they’re scheduled to face at the top of the ACC — Florida State and Clemson — were both incredibly disappointing in their losses. It’s definitely too early to declare Miami the team to beat in this division, but the 41-17 win at Florida was certainly impressive. New quarterback Cam Ward torched the Gators for 385 yards and three scores, and the defense produced eight tackles for loss and three sacks. The Hurricanes’ path to a 7-0 start to the season heading into an Oct. 26 matchup with Florida State is there. On paper, their toughest game was a Sept. 27 matchup with Virginia Tech, but that was before the Hokies lost to SEC punching bag Vanderbilt. Perhaps the Oct. 19 trip to Louisville will be tough. However, Miami has a real chance to match last year’s seven-game winning streak by Halloween.

Gator needs help

It’s not too early to speculate on Billy Napier’s future at Florida. After going 11-14 in his first two seasons, this year has the potential to be a disaster. Seven ranked teams remain on the Gators’ schedule, including visits to No. 15 Tennessee and No. 4 Texas, as well as home games against No. 1 Georgia and No. 6 Ole Miss. It’s hard to imagine this team avoiding another sub-.500 season, and would Florida really keep a coach with three consecutive losing seasons?