00:00In your opinion, is Lincoln Riley the right guy for the USC, you being an alum too as well, is
00:08he the right guy for USC football?
00:11So, Dan, this is the first year where he's truly on the hot seat.
00:15When he signed a 10-year contract, there have been people who have not been happy with him year two,
00:20year three.
00:20What I told those folks was like, they're not going to fire him now.
00:23Now he's officially on the hot seat, Dan.
00:25I mean, if this is not a playoff team, now that this is a 12-team playoff, if USC is
00:30not one of the 12 teams in the college football playoff this year, I don't see a pathway for him
00:34to come back.
00:35And what you saw on Saturday was, yes, it was hot, it was humid, but this is not, in the
00:42view of a lot of USC fans, a championship contending team.
00:46And so when you go back to the good old days of Pete Carroll, where they're consistently in the top
00:51five, in the top 10, and in the championship conversation, that confidence gets eroded over time.
00:59And so, Dan, I think USC is one of those programs, a little bit like the U, you might disagree,
01:05they have your support.
01:07If you put out a good product, if you don't, and it's hot, and you're going up against San Jose
01:12State, we got the beach, we got the Dodgers, we got the Rams, we got the Chargers, we got a
01:17lot of other things happening here.
01:20You know what, I'll say this to you about Southern Cal.
01:22Do you think that Lincoln Riley, do you believe in your heart, he is keeping the local kids in Los
01:31Angeles to want to go and play there?
01:33Because I thought that with Ed Ogeron, when you guys had him there, he was recruiting and bringing all those
01:38great talented kids into USC.
01:41Is it that one of the things that Southern Cal has missed?
01:44It's no longer where, hey, you know, you're born in L.A., Arash, you ain't going anywhere, but USC,
01:51if they come knocking on your door, is that where he has to improve this team and where he has
01:56to improve himself in the community is keeping the local talent at home?
02:011,000%.
02:02Again, he has improved on that a little bit.
02:04They have a number one recruiting class this upcoming, I mean, this season.
02:08So if USC is going to be a playoff team, it's because these young kids have developed a lot quicker
02:13than I think.
02:15Because, again, right now, Dan, I truly don't believe that this is a playoff team this year, but you brought
02:20it up.
02:20But Coach O realized the importance of keeping the kids local, whether they were in Long Beach Poly or Mater
02:27Dei.
02:27You go down the list.
02:28If you at least keep the local kids there, you are a contending program.
02:33And Lincoln Riley, listen, he wanted to recruit around the country, and I get that.
02:37You have to keep the local kids local.
02:40You can't let them go to Eugene and Tuscaloosa and all over the country.
02:44So he has improved on that.
02:46We'll see if it's enough for them to be a playoff team and for him to keep his job here.
02:52Arash has the demise of the Pac-12.
02:55Has that been something good for USC, UCLA, and some of the West Coast teams that have joined the Big
03:03Ten?
03:03Has this moved to the Big Ten, in your opinion?
03:06Will this be beneficial to a program like Southern Cal and UCLA, or do you think the demise of the
03:12Pac-12 really is still yet to be determined on how this is going to play out?
03:16You know, Dan, it's financially beneficial to them, but I don't think anyone who grew up with the Pac-8,
03:23the Pac-10, the Pac-12 wants them in the Big Ten.
03:28And this is still weird for me, by the way, to see USC in the Big Ten, to be playing
03:32conference games against, like, Penn State.
03:35So this is still a weird thing.
03:38This is the future of college football.
03:40I mean, we may be going away from the conferences, and we just have, you know, college football, and it
03:46doesn't matter.
03:47But I miss the old days where you would have Cal and Stanford and U of A and, like, Arizona
03:53State.
03:54Like, I miss old-school college football.
03:56Dan, it's still weird to me that they essentially have, like, a salary cap now, and these kids are signing,
04:02like, one-year contracts, and they're taking pictures of them signing these contracts.
04:07Like, it's a different sport.
04:09I'm still getting used to it, though.
