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Urban Meyer Sends a Strong Message About High Profile Job

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As Week 9 in college football gets underway, there have already been several job openings across the country. It started in Week 3 with UCLA firing DeShaun Foster and Virginia Tech firing Brent Pry.

Since then, multiple jobs have opened, with Penn State after firing James Franklin and Florida, after firing Billy Napier, being the two biggest openings.

This coaching cycle is going to be one of the wildest we have seen in some time. We are not even to November yet, and there are expected to be more high-profile jobs to open across the country. That doesn’t even take into consideration which jobs might open up after someone leaves for a job at one of the openings.

One coach who some consider might see his seat get warm at some point is Lincoln Riley at USC. After losing at Notre Dame last weekend, the Trojans are on pace to miss the 12-team College Football Playoff. Despite that, one former college coach doesn’t think Riley is in danger of being fired this year.

Urban Meyer Says Lincoln Riley Will Not Be Fired at USC

Former coach Urban Meyer spoke on the Triple Option podcast. Despite what some may believe, Riley is not in trouble at USC this season.

“No chance,” said Meyer. “No chance. No chance.”

Meyer thought the same thing about Franklin at Penn State. Three losses later to Oregon, UCLA, and Northwestern forced the hand of athletic director Pat Kraft to make a move. In a sport where coaches’ jobs revolve around winning and losing, anyone is fair game to be fired in this day and age.
“You’re right,” Meyer said. “OK, we presented the picture, but now let’s go deep. Like I said, I can probably do this better than most. All right, you make a decision. You make a decision, you go back in your office. You have a Rolodex on your phone now; it used to be a Rolodex. Do you start calling the Bs, the billionaires, or the hundreds of millionaires, and say, ‘All right, here we go, I’m going to make a decision. I need a check for $20 (million).’’
Making a change at USC is not easy if they want to. Riley signed a 10-year, $110 million contract with a buyout of around $80 million. It would be the largest in college football history.

Lincoln Riley Has Struggled at USC

After a 55-10 run at Oklahoma over five years, he is just 31-16 at USC. He never lost more than three games in any season in Norman. He has lost five and six games the last two seasons after going 11-3 in his first season in Los Angeles. Meyer said that Colin Cowherd brought it to his attention that schools did not want to get into the habit of huge payouts.

“Actually, Colin Cowherd brought this up to me,” Meyer said. “We were talking one day on air on The Herd, and he said, and I’ve done some research on this, he said that you’re going to see the end of the big buyouts. People are going to stick with coaches longer.”

USC has a manageable schedule the rest of the season with Nebraska, Northwestern, Iowa, Oregon, and UCLA after their bye this week. Northwestern, Iowa, and UCLA are at home. The Trojans are 5-2 after losing to Notre Dame, and it feels like a nine-win season needs to happen to take some heat off of Riley.

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