The USC Trojans are 5-1 and ranked No. 19 in the country, with wins over San Jose State, Fresno State, Louisiana, Rutgers, and Washington. But their home loss to Oregon on Sept. 26 still hangs over Lincoln Riley, who once again finds himself on the hot seat midway through the 2026 college football season. Carson Palmer, a former NFL quarterback and USC Heisman winner, joined Colin Cowherd on Tuesday and pushed back on the narrative surrounding Riley and his ability to lead a winning program.
I loved the hire from the jump," Palmer said. They lost one at home, and there's a lot of big-time football ahead of them. The games that are in November are the ones everybody remembers, so we'll forget about this Oregon game at some point once we get away from it a little bit.
But I believe in Lincoln, I believe in the team. There's no doubt they're talented, they're young. It's hard to count on freshmen in the first quarter of the season.
Give them a quarter to let them get a feel and the pace of play and this new lifestyle that they're living." More news: Eli Drinkwitz Earns National Spotlight After Missouri Humbles Florida Riley broke out as a head coach at Oklahoma, developing Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray into Heisman winners and keeping the Sooners in the playoff mix. USC hired him in 2022 on a 10-year, $110 million deal to do the same thing, but he hasn't yet lived up to that massive contract. He went 11-3 in his debut season with Caleb Williams, another Heisman-winning quarterback, but they've slipped since, with records of 8-5 in 2023, 7-6 in 2024, and 9-4 last season.
USC signed the No. 1 recruiting class in 2026 and was supposed to be a playoff contender this season, but Riley has again struggled against ranked opponents. His current buyout is reported to be around $70 million, which would be one of the biggest figures in the history of the sport, but that hasn't stopped rumors that this could be his last season at USC. More news: Ryan Day Has Simple Message for Julian Sayin on Forcing Ball to Jeremiah Smith More news: Oregon Gets Good News on QB Dante Moore After Scary Concussion Penn State isn't ranked and has struggled through five games, but Beaver Stadium is one of the toughest places to play in college football, which makes this a perfect test for Riley to show there's more to this team than it has shown so far.
After the Nittany Lions on Saturday, USC will travel to Wisconsin before facing Ohio State, Indiana, Maryland and UCLA.
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