Social Media reacts to Lincoln Riley's surprising comments on Alabama

University of Southern California head coach Lincoln Riley took to the microphone during Big Ten Media Days and had some remarks about the Alabama Crimson Tide and former head coach Nick Saban that left many across the college football landscape questioning him.

What did Lincoln Riley say about Alabama?

During his time on the podium, Riley stated, “Bama was ahead of the curve for years…They didn’t schedule for their fans. They scheduled to win championships.”

While this could not be further from the truth, Riley did not do himself any favors as his words rang loudly being that Big Ten Media Days is a national forum with a lot of eyes on it. And with social media available in 2024, fans were not shy about sharing their thoughts.

What did fans on social media say about Lincoln Riley’s comments on Alabama?

This fan is absolutely correct. Riley’s record during his time at USC is 19-8 which is only good enough for a 70% win percentage. Saban’s was 206-29 at Alabama, which equates to an 87% win percentage.

This fan is correct. And they even self-admit that they dislike Alabama. However, they are knowledgeable enough about the game to know that the Tide scheduled power four non-conference opponents every years Saban was at Alabama.

Teams like Michigan, Texas, Florida State, Penn State and so many others were put on Alabama’s schedule in early season matchups. Often times these teams were in the top 25 at the time of the game. And oh yea- let us not forget to mention the Crimson Tide’s game against the USC Trojans when the Tide trounced them 52-6 in an early season non-conference game back in 2016 ironically enough.

Riley recently tried to cancel USC’s week one game against the SEC’s LSU Tigers in Las Vegas for 2024, and cancelled a home-and-home against the SEC’s Ole Miss Rebels the next two seasons.

This seems like he is contradicting his remarks, does it not? Riley has come across to many as a “crybaby” in recent years, and this fan is reinforcing it off of Riley’s recent remarks.

After spending five seasons at Oklahoma, Riley decided to leave seemingly right in line with the announcement that the Sooners would be going to the SEC. Speculation ran wild that the offensive minded Riley wanted no part of a league which required defense. These remarks allowed this fan a chance to call out that exact move.

USC has had a lot of de-commits in high school recruiting the past few months, so I am sure administration at the school is not loving the media backlash coming from Riley’s remarks, especially since they are unfounded. Nonetheless, they were made and the repercussions will have to be dealt with.