USC’s defensive questions resurface as Lincoln Riley’s system still faces skepticism after San José State test

USC’s defensive turnaround has been a central storyline since Lincoln Riley took over as head coach. In a new column, Yahoo Sports writer Gary Swanson argues that the Trojans are still nowhere near playoff-ready on that side of the ball, citing concerns that persist even after Riley’s latest defensive reboot.

The prompt for the critique is USC’s performance versus San José State, a nonconference game that, in college football terms, often serves as an early measuring stick. The column frames the result as less about one outcome and more about what USC’s defense looked like in live, game-speed situations, especially in moments that separate contenders from pretenders.

The image accompanying the report depicts San José State quarterback Luke Weaver driving the play to the end zone late in the fourth quarter, reinforcing the broader theme that USC’s defense has not yet answered key questions when opponents have opportunities to turn pressure into points. For a program built to contend, late-game execution and defensive closing matter as much as early adjustments.

What Swanson’s argument effectively challenges is the timeline. Riley’s defensive approach, like any transformation at the Division I level, requires not only scheme installation but also consistent execution by players within that system. The concern in the piece is that the gap between talent plus coaching change on one hand, and repeatable, high-level defensive play on the other, may still be too wide for USC’s aspirations.

In the same column, the writer links the current questions to a longer-running pattern, suggesting that subpar defensive play has followed Riley’s teams since his arrival at USC. That sets up a difficult standard: elite teams are expected to stabilize their defense quickly, particularly against offenses designed to exploit coverages and create mismatches across down-to-down drives.

For USC, the next step is less about how the narrative reads after one game and more about whether defensive performance improves in identifiable ways. Fans and analysts will likely be watching for sharper gap discipline, fewer sustained opponent drives, and more stops in situations that tend to decide games, such as third downs and late-game red zone sequences.

If USC’s defense continues to lag behind the program’s ceiling, the playoff conversation will become harder to sustain, not because one nonconference opponent defines a season, but because every future matchup against stronger competition will amplify the same vulnerabilities. Conversely, any clear defensive shift from the San José State test could help USC reframe the rebuilding process as real progress rather than a lingering concern.