Lincoln Riley's Seat Just Got Hotter After USC's Bye Week Shift

Lincoln Riley is turning up the heat during the bye week leading into the Indiana Hoosiers game on Nov. 14.

No. 18 USC Football is in the middle of their second bye week of the 2026 season.

Head coach Lincoln Riley promises that this bye week will be handled much differently than the last bye week.

Prior to their first bye week, USC had defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions in their annual “White Out” game 31-23.

This was the road trip that every Trojan had circled on their calendar, as the road game that Riley shows the USC fan base how his team has evolved as a road team.

USC went into a bye week following their masterful performance against Penn State.

Their next opponent were the Wisconsin Badgers, who were coming off of a tail-kicking against the UCLA Bruins at the Rose Bowl.

Riley has said he was using the bye week to get healthy.

Mark Bowman, Jide Abasiri and Elijah Paige were key players who missed the Penn State game.

Riley wanted to keep his team fresh during the bye week and gave the players the weekend off.

With USC coming off of a big win and Wisconsin coming off of a loss, USC went into the game as the betting favorite.

USC would go on to play the worst game of Lincoln Riley's career.

USC was averaging 32.8 points per game going into the Wisconsin game.

Riley’s offense scored seven points in the game, the lowest point total for Riley as a play caller, ever.

Not only did the offense rush for -17 yards, but Maiava was sacked five times.

The 24-7 loss was confusing considering that Riley’s team had two weeks to prepare.

Riley’s soft approach in the bye week showed up on game day in Madison.

USC was bullied in the run game with Wisconsin running up the middle throughout the second half.

When asked on Monday about what the plan was for this upcoming bye week, Riley stated “We do absolutely nothing that we did the previous one.”

Riley said the bye week schedule and the intent of practice was going to be different.

Instead of a bye week that promotes rest and recovery, Riley wants to keep the players sharp by focusing on physical practices and keeping the players ready, even when there is no game.

USC is going to the playoffs if they can survive a schedule that has the No. 6 Indiana Hoosiers, the Maryland Terrapins, and the No. 5 UCLA Bruins remaining.

We will see if the new bye-week practice schedule makes a difference on Nov. 14 when USC travels to Bloomington.

USC’s win over Ohio State was the biggest triumph of the Trojans’ season as well as Lincoln Riley’s five years in charge of the football program.

The joy with which USC fans stormed the field after the Trojans toppled the No. 2 Buckeyes made Halloween 2026 a date set to live in extended euphoria for Trojan fans.

But for Riley and his team, it’s back to work.

“Our whole little world here is going to want to keep talking about that game,” Riley said.

“Like it was a great moment for everybody outside and you guys on the outside keep enjoying it.”

“Like us, we got in here Sunday, and it was like ‘We got to get past it, and we got to get moved on and get our focus into this week and the challenge of even before Indiana or anybody else we play, just the challenge.’”

“We got to go handle this week great.”

“This is a big challenge for our team right now, so getting us forward focused was very important.”

Riley was consistent in his reflection on the game.

He always says good games are never as good as they seem and bad ones are never as bad as they seem.

USC played its best game of the year against its best opponent to date in Ohio State, but the head ball coach saw plenty to correct.

“There’s still so much to correct and get better at,” Riley said.

“I know how the notion is on the outside.”

“It’s the polar opposite of being in here, whatever a week ago or whatever.”

“Now the notion is ‘You won a game against a really good team and separated a little bit and it must have been…no.’”

“It was far from perfect.”

“We dominated some key areas of the game which allowed us to dominate the scoreboard and play the game a little bit on our terms there at the end of the game and play it pretty smart, but we can play a lot better.”

“We’re going to need to play a lot better.”

“It was an exciting win, but it was far from our best.”

“So there was a lot to correct on Sunday.”

Riley didn’t name a specific football area from the tape, but certainly he had in mind the amount of explosive plays USC’s defense allowed.

One change we know the Trojans are focused on making is the approach to the bye week.

Last time out, USC punctuated two weeks without a game with its ugliest performance of the season at Wisconsin.

The Trojans are set with a different agenda the second time around.