Have you heard about the USC Trojans or Lincoln Riley for a few weeks now? Nah, right? It’s because they are not in conversations anymore, given their pathetic 4-5 record. But now, all of a sudden, the internet is full of Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans news. The reason is their recent controversy over violating NCAA rules. They are in hot waters right now after a violation of certain coaching rules. After violating “on-and-off-field coaching activities during the spring of 2022, fall of 2022, and spring of 2023, resulting in the program exceeding the permissible number of countable coaches by six for two academic years,” as per the NCAA Bleacher Report. Now Lincoln Riley and the Trojans are facing its consequences.

As a result of their actions, USC football is now fined $50,000 and thrown on a one-year probation for violation of NCAA rules. After a lengthy investigation process, the officials have found out that the Trojans went beyond the permissible number of countable coaches by six in the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

Although Riley can take a breath of relief as the new set of rules was introduced in January 2023, which changed the head coaching role from a rebuttable presumption to an automatic attachment. That’s why Riley, who joined the Trojans in 2021, will not be dismissed. “Because Riley was not personally involved in the violations and demonstrated that he promoted an atmosphere of compliance and monitored his staff, Riley rebutted his presumed responsibility for the violations occurring before the rule change.”

As a result, the officials concluded that Riley would not be suspended. If you’re thinking Riley is being saved from suspension and Trojans will get probation and fines, you’re not getting it. There is more. As per the NCAA committee report, the Trojans will have to handle a few penalties as well. They will now be prevented from having special teams analysts in practice and film rehearsal for as long as six days for the rest of the two weeks of the ongoing 2024 college football season. Adding salt to the Trojans’ wounds, the trollers have now targeted Lincoln Riley for his generic response.

Did Lincoln Riley say they have other important things to pay attention to right now?

The college football world is not finding Lincoln Riley’s response to the current situation entertaining. Some of them had already started calling out Riley’s response, which was quite minimal. “I don’t really have anything to add,” Lincoln Riley said. “I mean, we’ve had that behind us now for months and have been passing. I know the way that these things work in this world; this announcement isn’t able to come out, but honestly, it is something I’d love to be able to discuss more and go into, but we got way more important things than that right now in this team, ready for this game.”

Whoa! That’s what Lincoln Riley has to say about all that chaos? No wonder he’s getting so much hate from all over the place. The Trojans are coming out of a 21-26 brutal loss against Washington, and their playoff hopes are equal to null. It looks like Riley and the Trojans are facing a rough patch in locking their future commits as well.

They have a few elite prospects for their 2025 class, from whom six guys have already de-committed from the program. Now, two more potential commits are on their way to join the Deion Sanders’ team. They are five-star Julian Lewis and four-star Carde Smith. God knows how many other prospects will leave the Trojans, given the current violation of rules and negative news surrounding the program.