Like his players, USC coach Lincoln Riley has to step up under fire

Lincoln Riley beamed.

The USC coach said he saw the as his team came back from a 17-point deficit against Texas A&M to claim a 35-31 victory in the Las Vegas Bowl.

He said he could feel it the in the dressing room.

“There’s a toughness and a toughness that’s developing in this program right now,” Riley said.

But how much is to be made of this?

As much as Riley raved about the Trojans’ resiliency, the reality is they were a 7-6 team this season.

Mental toughness is important, but so is physical talent, and USC looks like it could come up short on different parts of the field again next year.

On the offensive line. On the defensive line. In the secondary. At quarterback.

Sophomore receivers Ja’Kobi Lane and Makai Lemon had showcase games against Texas A&M, but don’t forget Miller Moss threw six touchdown passes in the Holiday Bowl last year. Moss was displaced as USC’s starting quarterback last month and has since transferred to Louisville.

Moss’ replacement, Jayden Maiava, was inconsistent in his three regular season starts, and he was inconsistent again Friday night as three of his passes were intercepted before leading the Trojans’ comeback.

Riley can be applauded for developing a culture of never giving up, but he doesn’t have many believers outside of his own locker room.

The 400 sections, which comprise the top seats at Allegiant Stadium, were completely empty Friday night. So were the 300 episodes.

There were rows and rows of empty seats elsewhere in the 65,000-seat stadium, serving as a visual representation of what happened to USC in its third season under Riley.

The fans lost hope.

At this point, Riley staying on this downward trajectory feels significantly more likely than him leading the Trojans back to national prominence — or even respectability.

They were 8-5 last year and 11-2 before that, and why should anyone think their slide won’t continue?

The Trojans are 20 years removed from their missed national championship in 2004. With each passing season, the Pete Carroll era looks more like an aberration instead of a realistic standard to which the program must be held.

Redshirt sophomore safety Kamari Ramsey said he decided to return to USC next season instead of declaring for the NFL draft in part because he believed in the direction the Trojans are headed.

“Obviously this season didn’t go the way we wanted, but the fight we showed every game, in wins and losses, just showed me what type of program we are,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey is not necessarily an outlier, but his view is not shared by everyone either. USC just lost 19 players to the transfer portal.

Riley’s first two recruiting classes included a dozen top-100 players. Nine of them are gone.

Riley has done what he can to characterize this season as a step forward, and he claimed the Las Vegas Bowl win was proof of that.

“We didn’t flinch,” he said. “We’re a pretty battle-tested group. We’ve been through a lot this year. We’ve been in a lot of big games.”

To his point, five of the Trojans’ six losses were by a touchdown or less.

“There was nothing in this game that could happen where I thought we were going to back down completely,” Riley said.

Instead of bemoaning Maiava’s erratic play in the first three quarters, Riley praised him for how he performed in the fourth.

“He stuck with it,” said Riley, who added he was “very confident” with Maiava as his quarterback moving forward.

Riley will have to practice what he learns.

The excitement produced by his first season at USC feels like something from the distant past. Expectation has gradually been replaced by fear.

The Trojans can’t sustain any momentum. They lose players on the transfer portal. They lack talent compared to the top teams in their new conference.

Riley can’t falter.