Two Trojan greats air frustrations with USC, Lincoln Riley following another come-from-ahead loss

We wrote Monday about how last week's 33-30 loss to No. 4 Penn State was either a rallying point or a breaking point for USC. Teams that out-rushed their opponents, won turnovers and led at halftime were 22-1 across FBS last week; USC was the one.

That loss, USC's third in four games, came after the Trojans led Michigan 14-3 in the second quarter and 24-20 with five minutes to play and lost 27-24, and after the Trojans led Minnesota 17-10 with 10 minutes to play and lost 24-17.

“That’s the frustrating thing for our team right now,” Riley said ahead of the Penn State game. “We’re two plays away from probably being 5-0.”

USC is now a handful of plays from being 7-0, but in reality they are a 3-4 football team following a Groundhog Day loss to Maryland. The Trojans held leads of 7-0, 21-7 and 28-14, and lost in regulation 29-28. 

Pretty much everything that could go wrong after Duce Robinson's 26-yard touchdown catch to put USC up 14 with 13:31 to play, did. Maryland moved 75 yards in 3:35 to pull within a touchdown, then executed a 2-point play to give themselves the opportunity to take the lead with another touchdown. 

Lincoln Riley opted for a 4th-and-1 field goal at the Maryland 24 after the 2-minute timeout, which Michael Lantz then missed. Maryland then went 47 yards in 48 seconds to take the lead in the final minute, and USC could not move back into field goal range to win the game in their final possession.

Clearly, USC players and coaches are nearing "here we go again" territory when tasked with finishing close games, if they're not there already. When that mentality creeps in, only three opportunities exist: A) USC plays well enough in the first three quarters to put the opponent out of reach in the fourth, B) USC finally breaks through and proves to itself it can win close games, or C) The issues cascade and USC doesn't play well enough to even possess a late lead.

At 3-4 and 1-4 in Big Ten play, USC must now finish 3-2 down the stretch against Rutgers, Washington, Nebraska, UCLA and No. 11 Notre Dame to avoid missing a bowl game. 

And to think: This season started with USC winning the fourth quarter 14-3 to hand No. 7 LSU their only loss to date. 

"I, I don't know," Riley said of USC's late-game issues. 

While Riley was out of words, two USC greats had plenty to say after the game. 

"This is unbelievable Every game we've lost, we've been up in the second half but we can't figure out a way to win. We can't finish. That is a mindset. There's nothing else, it is a mindset. Frustrated, disappointed, embarrassed, you name it," Matt Leinart said. "I don't know what the solution is. It feels like we're taking steps backwards. I think the fans, alumni, deserve better."

Leinart and White combined for approximately 300 touchdowns, a 34-game winning streak and two AP national championships in an era of USC football that's long gone and increasingly looks like it's never coming back.

In the here and now, Riley's 22-12 start is behind the pace of Clay Helton, who was 24-10 in his first 34 games. The line of demarcation in Riley's tenure rests at last year's Notre Dame game; until that game, Riley was 17-3, since then he's 5-9. 

The words of two former USC greats -- particularly Leinart's, who sits weekly at Fox's studio desk -- will be heard far and wide across Trojan Nation. Clearly, White, Leinart and the rest of the USC fan base has reached a boiling point with the team's inability to close out tight games. 

Either Riley and company figure out a way to fix it, or sooner or later the USC administration will figure it out for him.

As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.