USC's 2025 failures come down to bad assistant coach hires ... again

Well, we're here once again. A Lincoln Riley-led USC football team has dropped another big game on the road, and the Trojans will miss the College Football Playoff for the fourth straight year of his tenure.

Riley has made his share of mistakes that have kept good Trojan teams from being great. He's also fixed a lot of the program's issues, including recruiting.

But the one thing he can't seem to get right is hiring the right people around him. USC's Oregon loss made it clear that the Trojans need to significantly overhaul their staff in the offseason once again.

Let's talk about it.

The past

The worst mistake of Lincoln Riley's tenure at USC was retaining Alex Grinch as defensive coordinator in 2023 after USC's defense fell apart in its final few games of the 2022 season.

But hiring and retaining bad assistant coaches has been a theme. Offensive line coach Josh Henson did a subpar job. Lincoln Riley just fired strength coach Bennie Wylie this past offseason and replaced him with Trumain Carroll.

It's been like playing whack-a-mole. As soon as one guy goes, it's clear another one isn't pulling his weight.

Rob Ryan

USC's linebackers were just awful against Oregon. But the Trojans have a lot of talent at the position -- Eric Gentry, Desman Stephens II and Jadyn Walker have all shown flashes of excellence.

The biggest issue was scheme. It felt like the Trojans didn't stop an outside run all game. You can have all the talent in the world but if you're not in the right spot, you won't make a play.

Ryan has has USC's linebackers consistently in the wrong spots. And it's not improving. The 11th game of the season was maybe the linebacker corps' worst.

Rob Ryan needs to be fired. And this all could have been avoided if he wasn't hired just a handful of months ago after Matt Entz departed for Fresno State.

Su'a Cravens calls out the linebacker scheme

Ryan Doughtery

USC's loss to Oregon was a special teams disaster.

The Trojans surrendered a punt return touchdown. They had a free kick out of bounds, a missed field goal, they hit the punt returner when he called for a fair catch, gave Oregon a free first down by jumping over the line of scrimmage on a field goal attempt (that the Oregon kicker missed anyway), and allowed a punt return touchdown.

That's a disaster. And again, Ryon Sayeri has been fantastic all year long, so even though he played poorly against Oregon, I don't think you can blame him.

But hitting a returner who has called for the fair catch is a textbook football mistake. So is leaping over the line of scrimmage on a field goal. Those are mistakes should NEVER make, let alone in game 11.

And to make matters worse USC allowed a punt return touchdown, its second crushing return TD allowed of the season. You know what happened in both of those games? USC lost.

USC has a lot of special teams talent on paper, but the Trojans have been bad in that phase of the football. So it also falls on the coaching staff!

Other defensive coaches: questionable

In its 3 losses, USC has allowed 34, 34 and 42 points. Is it any coincidence that the Trojans' three losses are also their three worst defensive performances? Nope.

USC managed to win a football game in which the offense struggled (Nebraska). But even one of the best offensive teams in the country can't overcome a defense this inconsistent.

Eric Henderson, Doug Belk, D'Anton Lynn ... they haven't been as obviously bad as Rob Ryan, but they've been questionable. None of USC's defensive units have been consistently good.

They have dealt with plenty of injuries. But why do they not have the same depth as the offense in the first place? That feels like a preseason talent evaluation/recruiting/transfer portal failure.

Lynn, Henderson and Belk have plenty to prove moving forward.

The good coaching hires

Making Zach Hanson offensive line coach was a home run hire for USC. The entire offensive staff has been really fantastic. Luke Huard, Anthony Jones Jr., Chad Savage, Dennis Simmons. They're all great.

I also think the Trumain Carroll hire at strength coach will prove to be good for USC.

But when some of these assistants are likely fired ahead of 2026 (because Lincoln Riley needs to go all in on 2026 if he wants to keep his job) maybe he should let Chad Bowden handle picking their replacements.

Because USC, and especially Lincoln Riley, cannot afford another bad assistant coaching hire.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Lincoln Riley's USC football assistants failed Trojans vs Oregon