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There aren’t too many similarities between USC head coach Lincoln Riley and the reported next coach of the UCLA Bruins, Bob Chesney. The UCLA job will be Chesney’s second FBS job after non-FBS coaching stops. Riley has never coached below the FBS level.

It's easy to forget how young Lincoln Riley still is

Despite being such a longtime fixture in college football, Riley is still just 42 years old. Chesney is only 48 himself, but it took him a while to grind his way up from being a Division III player to head coaching a Big Ten Conference team.

Riley quickly got to become an FBS coordinator

After Riley’s playing days ended at Texas Tech, he became a student assistant and graduate assistant with the Red Raiders. By 2007, Riley was Texas Tech’s wide receivers coach and in 2010 he became the East Carolina Pirates offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Oklahoma brought Riley in ahead of the 2015 season as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach before taking over as head coach in 2017.

Bob Chesney lived the D-III life for quite a while

Chesney’s path looked much, much different. Chesney’s coaching career began at Division III Norwich as a graduate assistant for two seasons. He then joined Division III Delaware Valley University as their defensive coordinator in 2002. Chesney then spent two seasons at D-III King’s University in Pennsylvania.

Chesney finally becomes a head coach

The next five seasons with John Hopkins as their defensive backs coach and then as their defensive coordinator. Chesney would get his first head coaching job in 2010 with D-III Salve Regina. After three seasons with Salve Regina, Chesney got hired by D-II Assumption University in Massachusetts.

Chesney hasn't slowed down since getting to the FBS

After going 44-16 with Assumption, he was hired as the head coach for Holy Cross in the FCS. With Holy Cross, Chesney would post a record of 44-21 with four playoff appearances in five years. Then Chesney replaced Curt Cignetti at James Madison, where he’s gone 20-5 and has the Dukes in the Sun Belt Conference championship game.

Riley's offense versus Chesney's defense will be must-see

There’s not many similarities between the two coaches paths, with Riley spending time with several Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks while Chesney has slowly climbed the ranks. Riley has proven to be an elite recruiter but the UCLA job will be Chesney’s first chance to bring in elite prospects.

Riley being a great offensive mind and Chesney being a defensive-minded head coach will lead to some great USC-UCLA battles over the next few years, or as long as Riley stays with the Trojans.

The are moving on from offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, per Tigers Illustrated. The school shortly confirmed after the report. This comes after he spent the previous three seasons with the program.

In addition, safeties coach Mickey Conn will also not be brought back. Head coach Dabo Swinney released a statement on the decision.

“I have made the decision to make a change at offensive coordinator,” Swinney said. “This was a very difficult decision. These decisions are never easy, especially when you really love and care for the people that are involved, and I deeply love and care for Garrett Riley and his family. At the end of the day, we just did not get the production and the results that we needed, and I just feel like it is time for a change, and so we will be moving in a different direction with a new offensive coordinator.

“I just want to thank Garrett for all that he did for us here at Clemson and leading us and helping us secure another ACC championship in 2024 and get us back to the College Football Playoff that year. I appreciate all of his efforts on behalf of our players and our program. Garrett is smart, he’s got great work ethic and he’s a great coach, but it just didn’t work like we both wanted. He’s got an amazing career ahead and he’ll be a great head coach in the future.

“We will also have a change with the leadership of our safeties with the departure of Mickey Conn. Coach Conn is someone that I’ve known since 1990 and he truly is family to me. He has done an amazing job here at Clemson. He’s been with us since 2016 — 10 years — and he’s been coaching the safeties since 2017 and coached a bunch of great safeties for us, including R.J. Mickens, who is a starting safety in the NFL as a rookie this year.

“I’m just so appreciative of Mickey and the great contribution that he’s made at Clemson over the last decade. I’m thankful for his family as well. I’m excited for upcoming opportunities he may have to go and call a defense and take the next step in his career. I’m forever grateful for Mickey and all the outstanding players he’s coached and all the memorable wins and championships we’ve earned together in the last decade.

“I am excited about the plan we have in place for our secondary and our defensive staff, and I am looking forward to identifying the right leader for our offense to help achieve our goals for 2026 and beyond.”

Riley came to Clemson in 2023 and has been serving as both the team’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach during that time. This has coincided with the Cade Klubnik era of Tigers’ offense. However, on the field, there have been some mixed results. That includes going to the a season ago before finishing 7-5 this season.

The 2025 season proved to be a frustrating one for Clemson. In the Preseason AP Top 25 Poll, Clemson was the No. 4 team in the country. After missing out on the CFP this year, head coach Dabo Swinney clearly decided that some changes needed to be made on his staff.

This also comes after Swinney had, seemingly, been critical of Riley throughout the season. Back in October, even wrote that their relationship was at a rocky point. That was even to the point that Tiger Illustrated noted that Swinney seemed to be publicly critical of Riley to a degree he had never been of another assistant coach. All of that pointed to a potential change coming on his staff once the season wrapped up.

This season, Clemson was 50th nationally in total offense, while averaging 405.3 yards per game. That was seventh in the ACC. Then, the Tigers were 61st in scoring offense, putting up 28.7 points per game. That mark would be 10th in the ACC.

Clemson just concluded the postseason with a 22-10 loss to Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl. Klubnik had 193 passing yards and no passing touchdowns. The Tigers ran for 43 yards as a team.

Garrett Riley is the brother of head coach Lincoln Riley. A Texas native, he began his coaching career in the high school ranks and made the jump to college as a GA at when Lincoln was the offensive coordinator on the staff there. From there, Riley would work his way up as an assistant coach and in 2020, he got his first chance to be an offensive coordinator. That was at . He would later move to and it was from the Horned Frogs that Clemson poached him following the 2022 season.

Southern California coach Lincoln Riley blamed Notre Dame for why the historic rivalry between the two teams has paused, adding the Fighting Irish didn't keep to their word.

USC and Notre Dame announced on Dec. 22 their rivalry would not continue after they couldn't come to terms on the future of the series that has been played 96 times since 1926. A week after the news, Riley was asked at a press conference on Monday, Dec. 29 ahead of the Alamo Bowl about what led to the halt of the rivalry game, and he pointed to Notre Dame as the reason.

Riley said both sides worked for months to continue the series and recently, USC athletics director Jen Cohen offered a proposal that would extend the game for two more years and Notre Dame rejected it.

"We took Notre Dame at their word that they would play us anytime, anywhere," Riley said.

The Trojans coach added five minutes after the offer was rejected, Notre Dame announced a home-and-home series with Brigham Young that effectively ended any chance of the rivalry continuing. He said "that might be the fastest scheduling act in college football history."

The main blocking point in the future of the game centered on the scheduling. Traditionally, it took place at Notre Dame in mid-October in odd years, and in even years, occurred in Los Angeles in November. The recent deal for the series ended with the 2025 game. The belief was USC wanted the game to be played earlier in the schedule to avoid it being in the middle of conference play.

"Had Notre Dame lived up to their word and played us anytime, anywhere, we would be playing in the next two years, and looking ahead after that and hopefully, continuing the series," Riley said. "They did not follow through on it. Thus, we are not playing them the next couple years."

Riley has stated several times he has great respect for Notre Dame and the rivalry and wanted to keep it going. Since Riley took over at USC in 2022, Notre Dame has won three of the four meetings, including three consecutive victories. He said he's hopeful something can be worked out in the future and "we at SC would love for the game to continue, and we have no problem following through on our promises in the future."

After it was announced the rivalry would be paused, both schools said in a joint statement they "look forward to meeting again in the future."

Notre Dame leads the all-time series 51–37–5.

Give Lincoln Riley credit; he knows his audience. He knows that all he had to do was offer some defense for canceling the longest-running rivalry series in the game, and the easily misled USC faithful would echo it as fact. However, if someone really listens to what Riley said, it belies his true intention, which was always to kill the rivalry at some point.

"With a scenario and a proposal that would extend the series for the next two years. We took Notre Dame at their word that they would play us any time, anywhere. That proposal was rejected."

It's been known for some time now that USC wanted to stage a Week 0 contest against Notre Dame, while the Irish wanted the traditional November matchup. It's clear from Riley's comments that's what they pitched again last week. There's a problem with the Week 0 thing. A poison pill, really.

Why Lincoln Riley pointing at Notre Dame Fighting Irish doesn’t add up

No team can just decide to schedule a Week 0 game. There are particular rules. That game has to be either played outside the United States, or a team scheduling Week 0 has to have Hawaii on the schedule. This is a way to recoup the cost of going to the Islands for a game.

It's certainly possible that the NCAA would have granted a waiver for USC and Notre Dame to play in Week 0. However, it's likely it wouldn't. The NCAA might have rightfully said, "why can't you schedule it on a regular week?" That's the beauty of this for USC. If the NCAA turns down the waiver, the Trojans get to say, "See, the NCAA didn't let us do it, it's not our fault!"

Instead, the Irish said no to Week 0. Perhaps because they knew this was Lincoln Riley and AD Jen Cohen's plan all along. Blame someone else, anyone else, for the cancellation while being ready to nuke it.

Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua saw this plan coming from a mile away and set up a backup for the next two years in BYU. Riley was angry about that, too. "Five minutes after we got the call, it was announced that they had scheduled another opponent, which I'll give them credit. That might be the fastest scheduling act in college football history."

Yes, Lincoln, because the Irish knew you weren't really trying to get a deal done and didn't want to be left holding the bag. The idea that ND was always planning to back out is nonsense. They had another school willing to take USC's spot in the schedule if the deal fell apart. Once it did, Bevacqua pulled the rip cord.

But the real clue that Riley and Cohen never really wanted to keep this rivalry going was right out there in the open. "Had Notre Dame lived up to their word and played us anytime, anywhere, we would be playing in the next two years and looking ahead after that and hopefully continuing the series."

Two years?! So the Irish had to totally capitulate and in return they get no guarantee of even continuing the rivalry for more than two years?

I'm sure the USC coach thought he sounded like the calm and rational one with that comment. Instead, he made it very clear the rivalry with Notre Dame was only continuing if the Trojans got exactly what they wanted. Even then, it might come to an end after 2027.

Lincoln Riley has demonstrated his cowardice when it comes to continuing to play Notre Dame for quite a while now. Marcus Freeman has tried to call his bluff. But if USC was dead set on killing the rivalry in the near future, the Irish were right to just pull the bandaid off and move on.