As the calendar turns to October (or Cocktober for those in
the know), what better time to talk about something spooky. The USC Trojans
have a graveyard of dead (or in Lincoln Riley’s case undead) coaching careers
since the departure of Pete Carroll. Here is the thing, according to statsmuse
USC has an overall record of 134-73 since Pete Carroll departed for the Seahawks
in January of 2010, but for most of my football viewing life they have not been
a serious championship contender. That is despite some current big-name
coaches, and an eventual national championship winning coach, leading the
program. Lets do a postmortem on the death of college football in Southern California.
The Good Ole Days:
Lets back up to the early 2000’s. Pete Carroll and the
Trojans were a Heisman Factory producing Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, and
Reggie Bush. They played in 2 BCS national championships (most notably the 2006
Rose Bowl loss against a Vince Young led Texas team) and won the 2005 BCS
National Championship game after defeating Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. They
also finished number 1 in the AP Poll in following the 2004 Rose Bowl (SEC Bias
gave the national championship to Nick Saban’s LSU team). The Trojans won 7
straight Pac 10 Conference Championships finishing in those years:
|
Season |
Conference Record |
Overall Record |
Bowl Result |
|
2002 |
7-1 |
11-2 |
Won Orange Bowl |
|
2003 |
7-1 |
12-1 |
Won Rose Bowl |
|
2004 |
8-0 |
13-0 |
Won Orange Bowl |
|
2005 |
8-0 |
12-1 (Vacated) |
Lost Rose Bowl |
|
2006 |
7-2 |
11-2 |
Won Rose Bowl |
|
2007 |
7-2 |
11-2 |
Won Rose Bowl |
|
2008 |
8-1 |
12-1 |
Won Rose Bow |
The Fall
You may notice a vacated season in that table. During the
Carroll era the Trojans were eventually pulled into a multi-year NCAA investigation
that handed down penalties mere months after Carroll left. The result was the
vacated 2005 season, scholarship penalties and bowl bans, and Reggie Bush
ultimately giving back his Heisman trophy. In today’s era of NIL and transfer portal
it is nearly unimaginable that Bush had to give back his Heisman for impermissible
benefits. The book Tarnished Heisman delves deeper into the Bush pay for play
scandal. This marked the end of the modern golden age of USC football.
The Prodigal Son
The fall of USC also marked the beginning of the fall of my
own team. Pete Carroll announced his departure January 11, 2010. That same
night a now infamous photo of a Mr. Lane Kiffin was taken in hallway of SEC media
days. Like a coward in the middle of the night, Kiffin left and was officially
announced as the next USC Head Coach on January 12, 2010. Kiffin had previously
served under Carroll before becoming the Oakland Raiders head coach and later
the head coach at the University of Tennessee. His departure may not have been
the start, but it was the final powder keg that blew up into Tennessee’s own
decade of disfunction.
Lane Kiffin coached 3 and half seasons at his dream job
before being unceremoniously fired on the tarmac after starting 3-2 and 0-2 in
Pac-12 in 2013. For the uninitiated this is what us die hard fans mean when we
say the term “tarmacking”. Kiffin’s record is as follows:
• 2010: 8–5 (5–4 Pac-10)
• 2011: 10–2 (7–2 Pac-12) — Ineligible for postseason due to
NCAA sanctions
• 2012: 7–6 (5–4 Pac-12)
• 2013: 3–2 (0–2 Pac-12) — Fired mid-season after 5 games
Is it unfair that he was dealing with the fallout of a
massive scandal? Maybe. Do I feel bad for him? Not even a little bit. Before
leaving Tennessee Kiffin and Ed Orgeron told their recruits not to enroll in
classes and to follow them to California. Ed Orgeron would become the interim
coach after Kiffin’s tarmacking. Kiffin is a coward and the ultimate fall into
mediocrity is cosmic justice for ever hiring him. I am sure USC and Tennessee
would both agree with that statement.
Back to the Well
With the firing of Lane Kiffin, USC turned to another coach
with deep ties to the program. Before he was leading the currently number 1
Texas Longhorns Steve Sarkisian served as QB’s Coach, Assistant Coach, OC, and
Assistant Head Coach for the Trojans from 2001-2008. USC announced him as the
head coach on December 2, 2013. Sark did not even serve two seasons as the
trojans head coach going 9-4 in 2014 and 3-2 before being fired in 2015. Sarks
tenure is largely marked by off-the-field issues. He was fired after being
placed on indefinite leave following struggles with alcohol. He has since gone
into recovery and the benefit of hindsight tells us that it all worked out for
Steve. Much like Kiffin, he would also eventually join the Nick Saban coach
rehabilitation program, no pun intended.
The Departure of Ed Orgeron and the Helton Era
Ed Orgeron left USC after the hiring of Steve Sarkisian following
a 6-2 record as the trojans interim head coach. He found his way to Baton Rouge
to become the defensive line coach in 2015 and eventually became the head coach.
Most notably, the slighted Orgeron lead the Bayou Bengals to an undefeated national
title season in 2019 before eventually being fired. Much like Kiffin and Sark,
Ed has seen his fair share of off the field occurrences. Really makes you
wonder about the character of Pete Carroll’s staff. All of these men were on
staff at the height of USC football in 2004 and all would go on to become major
power conference head coaches. Orgeron won a national title. Kiffin made the
playoffs with Ole Miss and now coaches playoff hopeful LSU (with Orgeron back
on staff). Sark is leading the number one team in the country after multiple
playoff appearances. Maybe everybody needed to do some growing up away from Los
Angeles to find success.
Clay Helton was named the interim head coach at USC following
the sacking of Steve Sarkisian. He was named the permanent coach on November
30, 2015. He served 6 seasons before being fired in his seventh season. There
were some bright spots under Helton including a Rose Bowl victory in 2016 and a
Cotton Bowl appearance in 2017. However, with the rise of Oregon and Stanford during
the 2010’s, his tenure is largely unremarkable in comparison to the mid 2000’s.
Also at this time the rise of SEC dominance was making the Pac-12 an afterthought
in the national landscape. As the playoff era set in, the Pac 12 was only
represented three times. Once by the Oregon Ducks and twice by the Huskies.
Most years the conference self-cannibalized. Never was USC at the forefront of
the playoff conversation.
The Modern Regime
And that brings us to the current coaching staff. Lincoln
Riley was hired away from Oklahoma following multiple playoff appearances and
building his own Heisman factory QB system. Lincoln brought with him eventual
Heisman winner Caleb Williams as well. From the outside looking in, this was a
great fit. Riley would bring back the flash and fire Trojans fans saw under
Pete Carroll. The team would compete for conference titles and national
championships again. To anybody paying attention, the match was a big splash but
a huge risk. Riley was overstaying his welcome in Norman. Despite multiple playoff
appearances Riley had never actually won a playoff game and increasingly was
getting embarrassed by SEC teams. His last year in Norman was a disaster by the
standard of Oklahoma. Riley also benefitted from an incredibly down Big 12
conference and with the imminent threat of Oklahoma joining the SEC and the
Sarkisian hire at Texas the writing was already been on the wall when Riley
announced his departure for Los Angeles. Lincoln was known to have fun flashy
offenses but soft squishy defenses. In the Pac 12 that may have been able to
pass by unscathed until the post season. He even went 11-3 in his first year
with a Cotton Bowl appearance. Caleb Williams also won the Heisman that year
and 2023 was looking to be playoff or bust. Well, it was a bust. Since then the
Riley tenure has been pedestrian. It did not help that USC left the Pac 12 for
the Big 10 right as the Big 10 was rising to power. His record is below, and it
seems inevitable that he won’t be the Trojan leader for long if he cannot turn
this season around after a loss to Oregon.
|
Season |
Record |
Bowl / Postseason |
|
2022 |
11–3 |
Lost Cotton Bowl |
|
2023 |
8–5 |
Won Holiday Bowl (vs. Louisville) |
|
2024 |
7–6 |
Won Las Vegas Bowl (vs. Texas A&M) |
|
2025 |
9–4 |
Won Alamo Bowl |
|
2026 |
4–1 |
Ongoing season |
What’s Next?
With the seemingly imminent end of the Riley regime in sight,
what is next for the Trojans? The big name you will here is Kalen DeBoer. Why would
he leave Alabama? This is the best Alabama team he has had, and they look like serious
playoff contenders. On top of that Alabama has the fan support that USC has
been lacking for nearly a decade. Every week we hear that USC cannot fill the Coliseum
amid a myriad of excuses about having better things to do. If they have better
things to do than show up to a ranked rivalry game against Oregon I have news
for you, they have better things to do than fund your NIL. USC should be a
Miami-esque national brand but for 15 years it has been relegated to the 6th
most important sports team in California behind the Lakers, Warriors, Dodgers,
Rams, and Kings (NHL). You could argue that they are even farther down the list
than that. Is USC doomed to be a fallen powerhouse never to arise again? In a
world where Indiana can win a national championship and Vanderbilt can sign a five-star
QB away from Georgia, USC can’t even make a 12-team playoff? Are they forever
doomed to watch their former coaches find greater success at other programs?
Only time will tell. For now UCLA is the predominant football team in Los Angeles.