Fornelli: Lincoln Riley must fix closing issues as USC keeps blowing leads

October 23, 2024

By Tom Fornelli, CBS Sports: I was reminded this weekend of a moment from my undignified high school football career. I played at right tackle, but due to injuries in a game, I was kicked to right guard, a position at which I hadn’t played. It was late in a game we were trailing during a pivotal third down. The play was called — a simple counter in which I was supposed to pull and seal the C gap. Only thing was — I did not pull. I was a right guard playing right tackle. Our running back was blown up by the player I should’ve been blocking while receiving the handoff, fumbled and the other team recovered the ball.

We lost.

As I came to the sideline, my coach, in far less gentle terms, asked me what I was doing. I told him, “I don’t know.” My coach replied with a more expletive-laden version of, “What do you mean you don’t know? It’s your job to know!”

Fast forward to Saturday night when USC blew a two-touchdown lead on the road to Maryland in a 29-28 loss. This a week after the Trojans blew a two-touchdown lead in the second half to Penn State and a few weeks after they blew a fourth-quarter lead to Minnesota. After the game, Lincoln Riley was asked about USC’s inability to finish games and why he thinks it keeps happening.

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B1G Time: Lincoln Riley needs to fix closing issues as USC continues coughing up games down stretch

Riley said he doesn't know why it keeps happening to the Trojans, but it's his job to know ... and rectify it

CBSSports.com

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