Letters to Sports: USC fans reaching their breaking point with Lincoln Riley

Letters to Sports: USC fans reaching their breaking point with Lincoln Riley

Lincoln Riley: worst coach ever!

Bill AgnewCrystal Beach, Texas

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I figured out the reason for the USC football team’s poor performance this season. A simple typographical error. The contract reads, “Transfer to Big TEN Conference,” when it should read, “Transfer to Big SKY Conference.”

Chris McDonaldNipomo, Calif.

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Steve Sarkisian won last Saturday, Clay Helton won last Saturday, Lane Kiffin won last Saturday. All their teams had better records than USC. What do you think the real problem is?

William MorrisPasadena

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I am a USC alum who arrived in 1962 when the great John McKay took us to a national championship! We were feared, respected, and had swagger. My parents came to USC under Howard Jones and always shared their memories of a USC football powerhouse. My son started a PhD program during the Pete Carroll era. All of those years are a distant memory. Speaking for so many disgusted fans, we deserve better. Against Notre Dame, the collective moan in the Coliseum with yet another last-minute loss because of Riley’s poor play calling was the breaking point for this lifelong Trojan.

Judi WelchPacific Palisades

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Miller Moss played well this year. Unfortunately for him, all of his losses were close ones so he took the “hit” for those defeats. Moss is what was good about the USC program. May I suggest that Moss play for an Ivy League school, have fun in his final year of football, and get a prestigious MBA in the process. This much I know: Wherever Moss finishes his football career, the school will have a class athlete.

Mark WalkerYorba Linda

It was crazy reading Ben Bolchs article on who would be playing football for UCLA in 2025. For a minute I thought it was Major League Baseball free agency before I remembered this is college were talking about.

These are youngsters in college who are essentially looking to the highest bidder before deciding where to play next. We root for our alma mater but these are not students playing athletics. They are athletes who just happen to wear the letters of a college on their jerseys essentially in a junior pro league. Root for the laundry was never a truer maxim.

Bob GoldstoneCorona del Mar

I would like to thank USC and UCLA for their success this inaugural season in the Big Ten. USC hastened the demise of the Pac-12 due to greed and UCLA followed suit like a little brother who has no choice but to follow his older brother. Mediocrity reigned for both schools, but worse than mediocrity is irrelevance, with the Dodgers, Rams, Chargers and Lakers et al. Dylan Hernández’s December 2 column was right on the money.

David CianchettiClaremont

Are the Mater Dei Monarchs really great? Used to be a time in high school sports that you played the kids that came from the neighborhood the school was in. Now its similar to the Division 1 college sports transfer portal where talented athletes regularly just transfer in because a particular school has become a powerhouse. Doesnt matter where theyre from, just how good they are. Anyone can now build a ringer team and wheres the fun in that.

Mike AguilarCosta Mesa

The Lakers won a championship in 2020 then broke up the team. The Dodgers won a championship this year and they’re keeping the team together (including Teoscar hopefully) and bringing in more pieces. Who is smarter?

Mike SchallerTemple City

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Is there a possibility that the Lakers could hire Andrew Friedman to run the organization? He seems to have created a consistent winning model for the Dodgers as the Lakers muddle in mediocrity.

Dean ConnorFontana

As a longtime UCLA football season ticket holder, I applaud the plan to modernize the Rose Bowl. I wonder, though, why previous improvement projects have not addressed the lack of handrails on the stairways to the seats. The stairs vary in height, some reaching 11 inches, and are, for many of us, challenging to navigate. Must we wait until 2029 or later for this important safety feature?

Karen MackLos Angeles

Congratulations to Sam Farmer for picking all 16 games correctly in the NFL last week. I almost wanted to contact him to go to Vegas with me for my week of March Madness fun until I saw he was only 8-8 with the spread picks. That’s about my speed. Love the paper, keep up the good work.

Greg MonroeSan Diego

In 1984 while attending basketball at the Forum during the summer Olympics, my buddy and I had the pleasure of meeting Lou Carnesecca.

Perhaps it was due to our telling him that we were fans of Chris Mullin, but the sweater-wearing man made it his personal mission to walk us around and introduce us to Big East Commissioner Dave Gavitt, Digger Phelps and several other basketball coaches. Like John Wooden another great basketball coach and affable man it was our treat that Carnesecca lived to be 99.

Ken FeldmanTarzana

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