Last season, the fourth quarter was USC’s Achilles’ heel. Lincoln Riley tried to turn it into a rallying cry.
Hoping to turn his team into late-game closers, the USC coach adopted the mantra “the longer it goes, the better we get.” The oft-repeated saying is just empty words now after USC’s second-half tailspin hit rock bottom with a 38-20 loss to rival UCLA at the Coliseum on Saturday. The Trojans (7-5, 5-4 Pac-12) will limp into the bowl season after losing five of their last six games.
“I’ve clearly not done a good enough job in the second half of the regular season getting our team ready to go,” Riley said.