The Times of Troy: At the end of Year 3, USC has yet to find its identity under Lincoln Riley

Hi, everyone! I’m Ryan Kartje, the USC beat writer at the L.A. Times, reporting to you from the final days of another frustrating USC football regular season. Since beating Notre Dame two years ago, in a game that appeared to announce the Trojans’ triumphant return as contenders, Lincoln Riley has barely managed to keep USC above .500.

Consider this: During his worst two-season stretch at USC, from 2018 to 2019, previous coach Clay Helton was 13-12. That was viewed, at the time, as a cataclysmic result, worthy of planes over the Coliseum calling for his firing.

But Helton had two 10-plus win seasons and a Rose Bowl victory on his resume by that point. Riley is 14-11 through his last two campaigns — one game better than Helton at his absolute worst — and he hasn’t given much reason to believe things will get better from here.

The coach was given a chance to state that case Saturday night, in the aftermath of USC’s 49-35 loss to No. 5 Notre Dame. But Riley said he didn’t think it was “the appropriate time” to consider where the program was headed.

“I don’t shy away from it,” he assured. “I could sit up here for an hour and talk about the things I know are happening within this program. I could rattle off all the stats. I could show you the facilities. I could show you recruiting. I could show you the staff. I could go on about that for an hour.”

But since he won’t talk about it, I suppose I’ll do it for him.

Even if USC’s record doesn’t reflect it, Riley is right that there was some progress this season. The Trojans always kept it close, having led in the fourth quarter in five of their six losses. The defense also clearly made major strides under new coordinator D’Anton Lynn. This is a better team than the one that finished 8-5 last year. But as we look toward the future, it’s not clear at all how the program plans to get better going forward, aside from Riley crossing his fingers and hoping for the best.

There are still questions at quarterback, where Jayden Maiava has tons of big-play potential, but not nearly enough polish yet to fully elevate USC’s offense. There are full-blown alarm bells along the offensive line, where the Trojans are set to lose their senior center (Jonah Monheim), their most consistent interior presence (Emmanuel Pregnon) and potentially their right tackle and have no discernible plan outside of counting on progress from its young prospects.

The uncertainty is even more pronounced on defense, where USC desperately needs more talent along the defensive front. They could find that in the transfer portal, though that approach has already proven to be hit-or-miss the last two offseasons.

Five-star defensive lineman Jahkeem Stewart, the No. 16 player in the 2025 class, could help with that talent deficiency, assuming he commits to USC as expected. But a freshman can only do so much. The truth is the Trojans need several top talents like Stewart to fill out its defense. That’s going to take time.

But of all the concerns surrounding Riley, the most pressing, I think, was one posed last night by former USC quarterback and Fox analyst Matt Leinart.

“Finish 6-6 and just really have no clue what we are,” Leinart wrote on X after the game. “Who are we? There’s no identity.”

He’s right. What does USC have to hang its hat on after a season spent trying to fit a square peg into a round hole? Where do the Trojans look to for hope in the future? Riley didn’t want to build around the rushing attack this season, even with one of the best backs in the Big Ten at his disposal. He didn’t have a superstar quarterback such as Caleb Williams to count on, and Riley failed to adjust accordingly. And while USC’s defense improved this season, it’s nowhere near talented enough to expect it to become an elite unit any time soon.

Riley will have plenty of questions to answer about USC’s direction ahead of next season. He wanted no part in answering those Saturday. Don’t be surprised if he doesn’t really over the next month, either.

But with patience wearing thin, and another disappointing regular season in the books, Riley won’t be able to outrun them much longer.

Extra points

Woody Marks gets hand slaps from fans before his last home game during senior introductions against Notre Dame.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

—Maiava made a pretty convincing case to be USC’s quarterback next season. Throw out the two pick-sixes, as far as auditions go, this was a good one. Maiava was the only reason USC had any chance against Notre Dame on Saturday, as he routinely made eye-popping throws downfield. Maiava made six big-time throws, per Pro Football Focus, the most of any Power 4 quarterback in any game this week — and one more than Williams had in a game at USC. Maiava still has a lot to clean up, but he just started working with a quarterbacks coach last spring. He should be even more comfortable next season. The question, as we approach the offseason, is whether Riley will try to bring in another transfer to push him.

—If any assistant coach deserves scrutiny this season, it’s Dennis Simmons. USC’s receivers coach was handed what appeared to be an embarrassment of riches at the position. But his young wideouts never came close to reaching their ceiling. Fresh off an outstanding freshman season, Zachariah Branch regressed as a sophomore. Ja’Kobi Lane and Duce Robinson both impressed in flashes, but never quite put it all together. Makai Lemon was easily USC’s best receiver this season, but barely saw any targets until midway through the season. Receiver was supposed to be the strength of USC’s offense. It wasn’t anywhere close.

—This wasn’t the way Woody Marks should have gone out. Easily the team’s MVP this season, Marks exited in the first quarter with an injury and never returned. It was an unfortunate way for Marks’ tenure as a Trojan to end. Presumably, he won’t play in the bowl game as he prepares for the NFL draft. But he’ll go down as one of the better running backs in recent memory at USC. Fortunately for the Trojans, they have a strong replacement waiting in the wings in Quinten Joyner.

—Listed among the Trojans being honored Saturday on Senior Day were several players who still have eligibility … if they choose to use it. Among the most notable: Right tackle Mason Murphy, receiver Kyron Hudson, tight end Lake McRee and cornerback Prophet Brown. Murphy would be a big loss, for depth reasons, while Hudson and McRee could probably both use another year before they try to make the NFL leap. Quarterback Miller Moss, another who was honored Saturday, will presumably enter the transfer portal and use his last season of eligibility elsewhere.

—He very nearly made it the whole season. But Eddie Czaplicki’s no-touchback streak officially ended in USC’s final regular-season game. He nearly lost the streak on a 74-yard (!!) punt that was called back because of a penalty, only to lose it later in the third quarter. A devastating result for those of us counting on the punter to provide the joy in this USC season.

AD on ND-USC

Fifty years after he helped engineer the greatest comeback in college football history, I called up the Notre Dame Killer himself to ask about the possibility that USC’s rivalry with Notre Dame might not survive past 2026, when its current contract runs out.

Let’s just say Anthony Davis didn’t take kindly to the concept of canceling a rivalry that traces back a century.

“I’ll put them in their place,” Davis said. “These people are smoking.”

The idea of ending the series was first floated by Riley last August at Big Ten media day, as the coach considered the future of nonconference scheduling in the 12-team College Football Playoff era. Still, Davis didn’t see the logic in his reasoning.

“I know things change,” Davis said. “Life changes. Circumstances change. But they need to try to keep this rivalry going. It’s part of history. It’s football lore. You need to have that rivalry going.”

Hoops in the desert

JuJu Watkins passes the ball to Kiki Iriafen as she is defended by two Seton Hall players.

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

A holiday hoops weekend in the desert went in two decidedly directions for USC’s basketball teams.

For the USC women, who rolled to easy victories over Seton Hall and Saint Louis in the Acrisure Invitational, it provided a soft-landing spot after last weekend’s setback. JuJu Watkins put up a season-high 34 in the win over Saint Louis, while Kiki Iriafen notched a career-high with 30, becoming just the second USC duo to each score 30 in a game.

With No. 2 Connecticut on tap in less than three weeks, it was an important get-right weekend for Lindsay Gottlieb’s team.

Eric Musselman presumably wasn’t so pleased. The USC men were nearly doubled up in a loss to St. Mary’s, 71-36, then dropped their second game to New Mexico, 83-73, to cap an especially disappointing trip. Truthfully, the Trojans haven’t really shown anything through the season’s first month to suggest that they can seriously compete in the Big Ten. USC has struggled mightily on defense and are — by far — the worst rebounding team in the conference. They also don’t have a consistent, go-to scorer. Right now, center Josh Cohen leads the team in points per game.

With USC’s Big Ten debut this week, it could get worse before it gets better for Musselman in his first season.

Big Ten Best Bet, Championship Week Edition

Oregon (-3.5) vs. Penn State

Our late-season, three-game losing streak has made this season finale of Big Ten Best Bets a must-win to avoid finishing .500 in our picks debut. But we feel pretty confident that Oregon is the better team in this one. Penn State needed overtime to escape USC and has just one win over a ranked team. Both teams are presumably headed to the Playoff, but only one, as we see it, has a chance to win the whole thing. We’ll lay the points with the Ducks, and hope to end this season on a high note.

In case you missed it

Hernández: USC coach Lincoln Riley has imprisoned the Trojans in a cycle of mediocrity

USC pushes No. 5 Notre Dame, but fall to Irish after disastrous fourth quarter

USC vs. Notre Dame: D’Anton Lynn’s improved defense faces its toughest test

USC’s improving offensive line faces big test against Notre Dame

‘Like a zen thing’: How USC’s Eddie Czaplicki became college football’s best punter

JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen lead USC to win over Saint Louis in Acrisure Holiday Invitational

USC basketball falls to New Mexico in Acrisure Classic third-place game

What I’m Watching This Week

Hazel Doupe as Marian Price and Lola Petticrew as Dolours Price in “Say Nothing.”

(Rob Youngson / FX)

One of my favorite non-fiction books of the last decade has been made into a Hulu limited series, and I am so here for it. “Say Nothing” tells the story of the Troubles in Northern Ireland during the late 1960’s through the 1980’s and follows several key figures of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The show has a tall task to match the book, which is a journalistic masterpiece from one of the best non-fiction writers alive, Patrick Radden Keefe. But I have high hopes after watching the pilot.