{"id":1038188,"date":"2026-09-02T04:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T04:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1038188\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T04:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T04:47:17","slug":"lincoln-riley-defends-usc-amid-criticism-of-season-opener-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1038188\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln Riley defends USC amid criticism of season opener crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After sparse attendance during USC\u2019s season-opening win over San Jos\u00e9 State<\/a> turned the Trojans into a national punchline during the weekend<\/a>, USC coach Lincoln Riley<\/a> responded Tuesday, dismissing what he called a \u201cfalse narrative\u201d being spread about the program in recent days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that comes from a lot of people who don\u2019t follow our program, most of those who have never stepped foot in the Coliseum,\u201d Riley said. \u201cThe reality is, during my years here, attendance has gone up every single year. As has our play in the Coliseum, including running the table last year in front of a lot of epic atmospheres. And I expect that to happen again this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Average attendance for USC football games at the Coliseum actually dropped from the 2024 to the 2025 season, from an average of 71,571 to 67,783. But the 2025 season also featured fewer marquee home matchups, plus one game soaked by heavy rain (Iowa), and it was still the second-best average attendance of Riley\u2019s four seasons as coach.<\/p>\n

Saturday, though, marked the smallest home crowd at USC since late in the 2018 season, when the Trojans had their worst finish for the program in a quarter century, under former coach Clay Helton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Much of that was due to the scorching heat throughout the Southland, which reached a heat index about 100 at the Coliseum on Saturday. It was so hot and humid that Lee Feaster, a native Texas and the father of freshman wideout Boobie Feaster, said on Tuesday that his wife passed out during the game and still had blisters.<\/p>\n

But the attendance announced by USC \u2014 51,144 \u2014 admittedly felt generous.<\/p>\n

Attendance was that low just once under Helton, for a 38-35 loss to Arizona State, the weekend before Halloween in 2018. But average attendance plummeted after the 2017 season as fan sentiment turned on Helton. For the rest of Helton\u2019s tenure, from 2018 to the start of 2021, USC reached the 60,000-fan mark just four times.<\/p>\n

Empty swaths of Coliseum bleachers hadn\u2019t been as much of a concern for Riley, who had never fallen below the 60,000-fan mark at home until Saturday. But as photos of the poor attendance circulated on social media during the weekend, USC chose to release a statement responding to the online derision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand the factors that impacted Saturday\u2019s attendance,\u201d the statement read. \u201cWe have high expectations and a premier home schedule this season, and we know the competitive advantage an electric Coliseum atmosphere can provide our program. We thank our fans who showed up Saturday and look forward to seeing increased attendance the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The response, though, only poured gasoline on a viral fire.<\/p>\n

By Monday, the conversation had crossed over from critical posts on social media to Riley\u2019s coaching peers roasting USC, starting with his alma mater.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot to take any shots because I have a lot of respect for USC and Lincoln Riley, but man it\u2019s really awesome to be playing Lubbock, Texas, in front of 60,000,\u201d Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s going to be warm. It\u2019s going to be every bit as warm as it was Saturday. The great thing is we\u2019ve got some really tough people in West Texas that love their football. They\u2019re gonna show up no matter what the weather\u2019s like. There\u2019s not going to be any excuses of why they\u2019re not here for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A fan covers takes cover under a poster during USC\u2019s season opener against San Jos\u00e9 State Saturday at the Coliseum.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

New California coach Tosh Lupoi piled on some more Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo turn on the TV, to see that environment in Los Angeles, that\u2019s disheartening to see,\u201d Lupoi said in Berkeley. \u201cI can guarantee you, that\u2019s a completely different environment here.\u201d<\/p>\n

USC should have a much more temperate environment to play on Friday, when it kicks off against Fresno State at 6 p.m. at the Coliseum. And Riley knows the world will be watching closely, to see how many seats are filled for the Trojans\u2019 second game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is USC, right?\u201d Riley said. \u201cPeople are going to pay attention. People are going to have an opinion. It\u2019s part of being a blueblood school.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After sparse attendance during USC\u2019s season-opening win over San Jos\u00e9 State turned the Trojans into a national punchline…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1038189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[39569,415330,1582,276,58324,1910,415331,2961,60839,224,5337,7088,415332,3546,4369,62441,5395,5950,11016,9953],"class_list":["post-1038188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-attendance","tag-average-attendance","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-coliseum","tag-game","tag-helton","tag-la","tag-lincoln-riley","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-lot","tag-native-texas","tag-people","tag-program","tag-riley","tag-saturday","tag-season","tag-usc","tag-weekend"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117199637374492059","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1038189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}