Lincoln Riley took questions after practice on Tuesday, his first public comments since USC announced a crowd of 51,144 for Saturday’s 42-26 win over San Jose State. The Trojans kicked off at noon local time with the temperature at 94 degrees and a heat index near 100, and the photographs from inside the Coliseum traveled further over the weekend than the score did.
“Yeah, I mean, listen, this is USC, right?” Riley said. “People are going to pay attention, people are going to have an opinion, it’s part of being a blueblood school. I don’t buy into the false narrative. I think that comes from a lot of people that don’t follow our program and most of those who have never set foot in the Coliseum.”
USC is paying Lincoln Riley $12.5M this season with a buyout of $60M.
Trojans signed the No. 1 recruiting class in CFB.
Legitimate CFP contender with a Heisman candidate at QB.
Can someone explain the lack of fans other than ‘it’s too hot to watch football in LA’? https://t.co/cTKdyfweYA
— Brad Crawford (@BCrawford247) August 30, 2026
Riley then made a specific claim about his four years in Los Angeles, telling reporters that attendance has gone up every year during his tenure and pointing to the Trojans going unbeaten at the Coliseum last season.
The Trojans averaged 64,484 at home in 2022, Riley’s first season, then 66,071 in 2023 and 71,571 in 2024. Last season the average landed at 67,783, a drop of nearly 3,800 per game, which still left it the second-best figure of his four years.
Saturday’s announced number came in below anything USC had produced under Riley, who had never dipped under 60,000 at home before this weekend. The Coliseum seats 77,500, which left more than 26,000 empty seats on the announced count, and the Los Angeles Times described that figure as generous. The last USC home crowd that small came in late October 2018, a 38-35 loss to Arizona State during Clay Helton’s final stretch.
NEW: Lincoln Riley pushes back on the “false narrative” surrounding USC’s crowd size vs. San Jose State:
“This is USC, right? People are gonna pay attention. People are gonna have an opinion. It’s part of being a blue blood school. I don’t buy into the false narrative. I think… https://t.co/kMQ8z6wlkKpic.twitter.com/m8AkOxuYPX
— On3 (@On3) September 2, 2026
Does the rest of USC’s home schedule solve this?
USC hosts Ohio State, Oregon and Washington at the Coliseum this season, three games that will sell on their own. The next one arrives Friday against Fresno State at 6 p.m. local time, with a forecast high of 84 in Los Angeles and none of the conditions that shaped Saturday. The Trojans are ranked 14th, went 9-3 last season and did not lose at home.
USC released a statement on Monday acknowledging the heat and the kickoff window, saying it understood the factors that affected the turnout and expecting attendance to climb the rest of the way. The statement drew more attention to the story, and by Tuesday two head coaches had joined in.
USC statement regarding attendance chatter from SJSU game at the Coliseum:
Also said they had a “heat plan” with additional cooling stations and cooling fans, and permitted fans to bring in additional water. Said they received “a lot of feedback” that weather was a factor. pic.twitter.com/6WhTwNTv3J
— Ira Gorawara (@IraGorawara) August 30, 2026
Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire, who coaches at Riley’s alma mater, put it this way:
“Not to take any shots because I have a lot of respect for USC and Lincoln Riley, but man it’s really awesome to be playing Lubbock, Texas, in front of 60,000. And it’s going to be warm. It’s going to be every bit as warm as it was Saturday. The great thing is we’ve got some really tough people in West Texas that love their football. They’re gonna show up no matter what the weather’s like.”
Tosh Lupoi, in his first season at California, added his own from Berkeley on Tuesday:
“To turn on the TV, to see that environment in Los Angeles, that’s disheartening to see. I can guarantee you, that’s a completely different environment here.”
Riley’s larger point about the Coliseum has room to be true, since a Mountain West opponent at noon in late-August heat is the softest ticket USC will sell all year. Fresno State kicks off at the Coliseum at 6 p.m. Friday, and USC will announce another number afterward, until then.
The post USC HC Lincoln Riley pushes back on crowd criticism with notable attendance claim appeared first on Gridiron Heroics.