Colin Cowherd doubles down, calling Lincoln Riley 'unfireable' despite USC not being great team in 2025

College football analyst Colin Cowherd has maintained his position on Lincoln Riley’s job safety as USC head coach. Cowherd appeared on Monday's edition of the Joel Klatt Show, where he discussed his expectations for the Trojans, among other things.

Cowherd insisted that the former Oklahoma Sooners’ job at USC is safe because the school might not be able to afford his buyout. He said (21:35):

“I think I’ve told you this before. The NIL, you know, these coaches that all hate it, it actually makes many of the coaches unfireable. Because if I’m spending $18 million on players, you can’t go to a booster and go “Hey, by the way, can you buy out Lincoln Riley for $72 million and pay the next coach $80 million?” And he’s like, “I’m already giving you $7 million a year for players.” So the truth is Lincoln Riley’s unfireable.”

The Trojans went 7-6 last season, putting pressure on the fourth-year coach to turn things around this season. Lincoln Riley joined USC ahead of the 2022 season, delivering an 11-3 finish for the Trojans in his first season in charge.

Former quarterback sees positives in Lincoln Riley’s underdogs

Going into this season, the Trojans went unranked in the preseason AP Top 25 poll. However, this can be a positive sign for the team, according to the Trojans’ former quarterback Cody Kessler. He said:

“This team can now embrace that full underdog mentality; that’s a great place to be in. There are some concerns out there, some narratives about this USC football team that do have some credibility to them.

“Now should a team be judged in a preseason poll on what they’ve done in the past, I don’t think so. I believe you should focus on what they have on that roster and the capability of what they have going forward, but I do believe those things played a factor in USC not being in the top 25.”

A big factor in the Trojans’ subpar performance in 2024 was the team’s trouble in finishing closely contested games. Thus, six of their losses from last season were by seven points or less. Lincoln Riley said:

“We were good at some of the end of games. We had a couple of two-minute drives where we won games and two-minute stops where we won games. We obviously had some that we didn’t.”

The Trojans’ first game of the season is against Missouri State on Saturday.

About the author

Kayode is a College and High School Sports writer at Sportskeeda since June 2023. Hailing from Nigeria, he has an undergraduate degree in Linguistics and African Languages, and has previously had stints as an entertainment and politics writer for around 7 months. Adept at creating content around historical perspectives, he strives to report stories based only on verified information. His mantra is - truth is always more important than sensationalism.

A fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team, Kayode admires how Nick Saban developed talent at the team and delivered consistent results, and hopes that the post-Saban era is just as fruitful. He is thoroughly impressed by Johnny Manziel’s talent, and feels that Shedeur Sanders is massively underrated. Nick Saban is his all-time favorite college coach.

While Kayode believes there is little to separate college and mainstream sports, pro leagues absorbing the best athletes leads to their quality being higher. Witnessing the Colorado Buffaloes’ hot streak at start the 2023 football season was one of his all-time favorite college sports moments.

When not writing, Kayode enjoys reading and watching sports documentaries. His most recent watch was "Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In."

Know More

Edited by Krutik Jain