Lincoln Riley: the worst coach ever!
Bill Agnew
Crystal Beach, Texas
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I have figured out the cause of the USC football team’s poor performance this season. A simple typographical error. The contract reads: “Move to Big TEN Conference” when it should read: “Move to Big SKY Conference”.
Chris McDonald
Nipomo, California
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Steve Sarkisian won last Saturday, Clay Helton won last Saturday, Lane Kiffin won last Saturday. All of their teams had better records than USC. What do you think is the real problem?
William Morris
Pasadena
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I am a USC alum who came in 1962 when the great John McKay took us to the National Championship! We were feared, respected and boasted. My parents came to USC under Howard Jones and always shared their memories of USC’s football powerhouse. My son started his PhD program during the Pete Carroll era. All those years are a distant memory. Speaking for so many disgusted fans, we deserve better. Against Notre Dame, a collective groan in the Coliseum with another last minute loss due to Riley’s poor play calling was the turning point for the lifelong Trojan.
Judi Welch
Pacific Palisades
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Miller Moss has played well this year. Unfortunately for him, all of his losses were very close, so he took a “hit” for those defeats. Moss is what was good about the USC program. May I suggest that Moss play for an Ivy League school, have fun his senior year of football, and get a prestigious MBA. This much I know: Wherever Moss ends his football career, the school will have a class athlete.
Mark Walker
Yorba Linda
What happened to the students?
It was crazy reading Ben Bolch’s article about who will be playing football for UCLA in 2025. For a second I thought it was Major League Baseball free agency before I remembered this is college we’re talking about.
These are young people in college who are basically looking to the highest bidder before deciding where to play next. We support our alma mater, but these are not students who play athletics. They are athletes who happen to wear college letters on their jerseys in what is essentially a junior professional league. “Root for laundry” has never been a truer rule.
Bob Goldstone
Corona del Mar
Big disappointment
I would like to thank USC and UCLA for their success this inaugural season in the Big Ten. USC hastened the demise of the Pac-12 due to greed, and UCLA followed suit like a little brother with no choice but to follow his big brother. Both schools were ruled by mediocrity, but worse than mediocrity is irrelevance as the Dodgers, Rams, Chargers and Lakers et al. Dylan Hernández’s Dec. 2 column was right on the money.
David Cianchetti
Claremont
A different kind of monarch
Are the Mater Dei Monarchs really that great? You used to play high school sports with kids who came from the neighborhood where the school was. Now, it’s similar to a Division 1 college transfer portal where talented athletes regularly transfer because a particular school has become a powerhouse . It doesn’t matter where they are from, but how good they are. Anyone can now build a team of “bell ringers” and that’s where the fun is.
Mike Aguilar
Costa Mesa
The Lakers could learn from the Dodgers
The Lakers won the championship in 2020 and then broke the team. The Dodgers won a championship this year and are holding the team together (hopefully including Teoscar) and bringing in other pieces. Who is smarter?
Mike Schaller
Temple City
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Is there a possibility that the Lakers could hire Andrew Friedman to lead the organization? He seems to have created a consistent winning pattern for the Dodgers as the Lakers wallow in mediocrity.
Dean Connor
Fountain
Request for a Rose bowl
As a longtime UCLA football season ticket holder, I applaud the plan to modernize the Rose Bowl. However, I wonder why the previous improvement projects did not address the lack of handrails on the stairs to the seats. Stairs vary in height, with some reaching 11 inches, and are difficult for many of us to navigate. Do we have to wait until 2029 or later for this important safety feature?
Karen Mack
Los Angeles
Bet on the farm(er)
Congratulations to Sam Farmer for correctly picking all 16 NFL games last week. I almost wanted to contact him to come with me to Vegas for my week of March Madness fun until I saw he was only 8-8 with tips. That’s about my speed. Love the paper, keep up the good work.
Greg Monroe
San Diego
A memory of Lou
In 1984, while attending basketball at the Forum during the Summer Olympics, my friend and I had the pleasure of meeting Lou Carnesecca.
Maybe it was because we told him we were Chris Mullin fans, but the man in the sweater made it his personal mission to walk us through and introduce us to Big East Commissioner Dave Gavitt, Digger Phelps and several other basketball coaches. Like John Wooden – another great basketball coach and affable man – we were delighted to see Carnesecca live to be 99 years old.
Ken Feldman
Tarzan
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.