LOS ANGELES — Lincoln Riley peered out over the Coliseum from atop his new gilded perch, dreaming up a future that just days before seemed no more than a pipe dream. It was Nov. 28, 2021, as USC’s new coach stood over a surreal scene from the stadium’s Scholarship Tower, promising to turn the Trojans into contenders and the Coliseum into mecca.
Considering the depressing depths to which USC had fallen in recent years, no reasonable soul could’ve expected in that moment to see those promises basically fulfilled in under a calendar year. But 363 days after his declaration, Riley stood on that very field for the last time this season with another rival vanquished, a Pac-12 title in close reach and the College Football Playoff presumably just one win away.
What once seemed improbable, if not entirely impossible, was now unfolding before the nation, a reality even the most serious of college football skeptics could no longer deny.
