The Oxford English Dictionary defines patience as the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. Angry or upset? Oxford people have never met a college football fan and it shows.
Welcome to college football, where patience and rationality are thrown out the window. Gone are the days of coaches getting time and patience to build up a foundation. If you’re coaching a big-time college football program and you don’t win a conference championship within three years or improve upon your record, the knives come out.
First, let me define what I believe to be a “big-time college football program.” You have to either play for a National Championship or win a National Championship since 2000. Those teams are; Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, TCU, Texas, USC, and Washington. If you can do something once, you can do it twice. Well, maybe not TCU. Sorry, Horned Frogs fans.
In the coaching carousel of 2021, two coaches left programs in this list for others. Brian Kelly went from Notre Dame to LSU and Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma to USC. They have had similar starts in two seasons since they arrived at their new programs.
Both won ten games in their first season. Both produced Heisman Trophy quarterbacks. Now, heading into their third season, they are under pressure and overlooked by many media members. Oh and did I mention these teams will take the field against each other in Las Vegas in 35 days?
USC
It seems odd to have to preach patience to USC fans. After all, they are moving into a new conference, replacing the first overall pick, and having a new defensive coordinator. Patience seems a necessity.
Yet, despite these mitigating factors, there is pressure on Lincoln Riley. USC was picked to finish sixth in the Big Ten. They open up against LSU and have challenging road games at Michigan and Washington. There have been allusions to the fact that if things don’t go well this season, Riley could be out.
An absurd take on someone who has coached three Heisman QBs and is in the third year of a ten-year deal. Starting quarterback, Miller Moss, threw six touchdowns in a bowl game and looked able to command Riley’s offense. Yes, it was only one game. But, it was enough for hyped freshman quarterback Malachi Nelson to transfer out.
Reasons For Patience
As mentioned before, USC is moving into the Big Ten. This presents challenges for a team and coach that has traditionally recruited well for skill positions. The Big Ten is better defensively than the USC’s previous conference: the Pac-12. The Big Ten had six teams that allowed 20 points or less a game, compared to the Pac-12’s three teams.
USC averaged 41 points per game last season, which was third in the country. This contrast of styles, which USC will have to adapt to, may take a season. Although there has been a lot of speculation that USC will be bullied by these stout defenses, there isn’t enough talk about how they’ll deal with USC’s offense.
Miller Moss has all the tools to succeed in Lincoln Riley’s offense. He throws with timing and precision. Moss can get the ball out quickly to the Trojan playmakers. Moss, crucially, will also play on script and will be more like Baker Mayfield at Oklahoma.
Lincoln Riley has never had a great defensive coordinator during his time as a head coach. Until now. D’Anton Lynn comes over from UCLA and will make an immediate impact on the Trojans’ defense. Add this to Lynn’s ability to recruit and USC should look a lot better on defense with Lynn at the helm.
LSU
Brian Kelly has coached seven straight 10-win seasons. Despite this being insane and unbelievable, LSU allowed 27 points per game last season. Their defense was awful and got shredded for at least 30 points in six SEC games. What saved them was an incredible Heisman season by Jayden Daniels.
Despite having elite defensive players including Harold Perkins Jr, LSU won’t go from bad to great on that side of the ball. LSU brought in Blake Baker (although his name seems auto-generated, he’s a real person) who came over from Missouri. Mizzou gave up the fourth least points per game in the SEC last year.
Reasons for Patience
The biggest and most obvious reason for patience as an LSU fan is recruiting. LSU had the sixth and seventh-best recruiting classes in the country in Brian Kelly’s first two full recruiting cycles according to 247 Sports.
LSU will always be dominant in recruiting no matter who the coach is. However, Kelly is known for getting the most out of recruiting and is starting on the right foot. Tigers fans must allow Kelly four years to truly judge how good these players he brings in can be.
Another reason for patience for Tigers fans is that Kelly usually has a great defense. In the final four seasons of Kelly’s reign at Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish gave up 20 points per game or less.
Kelly should be able to create a solid defensive foundation at LSU given the time and players already there.
Conclusion
Patience is rare in college football. USC has shown maybe too much patience with sub-par head coaches. As evidenced by Clay Helton, who only won double-digit games twice in eight seasons as USC head coach. It’s foolish to think USC would reward that mediocrity to someone who didn’t have a singular elite quality as head coach. Furthermore, Riley has produced three Heisman trophy winners and all have been number one overall picks in the NFL.
For LSU, they’ve shown patience for previous coaches and will likely give Kelly time to make an expanded Playoff. LSU will, like the rest of the SEC, need a year or two to get used to the gauntlet of the new SEC.
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