Lincoln Riley couldn’t have had a much worse weekend.

One of the USC football coach’s top linebackers compounded a questionable hit by celebrating it while the quarterback he pummeled lay motionless on the field.

Riley’s team went on to lose the showdown against Oregon – at home, against a backup quarterback, no less – before getting grilled about allowing linebacker Desman Stephens II to remain on the sideline after his ejection.

While some fans, a large segment of the media and even one notable alumnus turned on Riley, the coach suggested Monday that his team has a chance to deliver the last word.

“The reality is, we go on the type of run that I think this team can have and have the type of stretch that we can, then ain’t nobody going to be talking about the end of that game,” Riley said during the “Trojans Live” show hosted by the school’s athletic department. “I mean, that’s just the world outside, and I understand it, but our world inside’s a lot different than the world outside.”

One person who has spent time in both realms – former star USC wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson – appeared to be done with Riley given a post on X. Johnson listed Riley’s 39-19 record next to the identical one of former coach Clay Helton through 58 games, adding that Riley was only 5-15 versus ranked opponents versus Helton’s 10-16 record.

Johnson ended his tweet by writing “smdh!” next to an emoji of a face palm.

Riley said he understood there would be plenty of chatter after a 41-27 loss in a game that was widely considered a must-win for the Trojans’ College Football Playoff hopes.

“At a place like SC, a place like Oklahoma, where I was at before, like, the one constant is the noise,” Riley said. “Like, there’s always noise. It’s just, what is the noise, right? Like, after you win games, the noise is typically over-positive and overblown and not accurate. And after you lose, it’s honestly, it’s the same way just on the other side of it. Like, the truth’s always in the middle. You know, the truth is on the tape.”

Riley was not specifically asked about the hit by Stephens that led to his ejection and later prompted the school to suspend him for the Trojans’ game against Washington this weekend. Oregon coach Dan Lanning has stated that Moore suffered a concussion on the play, but testing revealed no further injuries.

Riley intimated that his team had the depth to withstand the absence of Stephens, who started each of the first five games and ranked third on the team in tackles for the No. 18 Trojans (4-1 overall, 1-1 Big Ten).

“The good thing for us is we’ll get all week to work some of the different combinations of the guys that we have, and which will be good for our staff and for our players,” Riley said. “You know, it’s not like it’s a surprise. We know what’s gonna happen now, so we’ll work all the different guys. We’ll work some different combinations, then settle in on what we feel like is gonna give us the best chance on Saturday.”

Riley said the play that doomed his team against Oregon was a roughing-the-passer call on defensive tackle Jide Abasiri that gave the Ducks a first down.

“The pivotal play was obviously the penalty, which was, you know, they missed a call, it was a tough call, tough time to happen there on third and 15 because we had it all, still had our opportunity certainly after that,” Riley said. “But, yeah, we just, you know, we didn’t do a good enough job, a combination defensively of affecting the passer and then closing down some of those lanes, you know, they made some really competitive plays.”

Riley conceded that being in a position to win wasn’t good enough.

“Ultimately, you know, this is a results-driven business, we understand that,” Riley said. “Like, there’s no moral victories for us here, there never will be. So I’m proud of the way we fought, but we’ve just got to play a little bit better. 

“We have a good football team and our ability to turn that over in terms of some of the plays that we didn’t make and opportunities that we missed and make our share of those will determine how far this team can go because we have a talented team, we have a really good football team but we’ve got to play better and we need to kind of start to hit our stride now.”