Lincoln Riley Goes Scorched On Notre Dame For Paused USC Series, Quoting Marcus Freeman

College football fans continue to take the brunt of decisions made in this current era of sports, with Notre Dame and USC getting into a conundrum over how they could continue their series. On Monday, Lincoln Riley decided to go scorched earth on the Fighting Irish, who he said failed to live up to the mantra of Marcus Freeman. 

If you haven't been paying attention over the past week, both teams released a joint announcement saying that the rivalry game would be canceled for at least the next few years, as an agreement could not be reached by both parties on a date. 

After starting their rivalry in 1926, this matchup had become one of the premier games in college football, no matter the record of each team at the time. 

Unfortunately, neither side could come to an understanding on how to continue the game, with the CFP being used as an excuse for wanting to reschedule, at least by the USC side. 

Marcus Freeman Words Come Back To Bite? CFP Probably Didn't Help

While the two sides were close to announcing an agreement to continue the series during the 2025 season, talks stalled once USC raised concerns about the timing and how it would affect their standing with the CFP. 

The solution? Play the game during week zero, which would give both sides an opportunity to build upon a loss in the eyes of CFP committee members. 

Now, Notre Dame had every right to decline the timing of the proposed game, but it still went against the words of head coach Marcus Freeman, who mentioned before the season they would play USC at ‘anytime or anywhere’ to continue the series. 

This past May, Marcus Freeman had this to say about playing USC to local reporters.

"It’s pretty black and white for me," Freeman said. "You want my opinion? I want to play them every single year. When? I don’t care. I don’t care when we play them: Start of the season, middle of the season, end of the season. I don’t care.

"I want to play USC every year because I think it’s great for college football: that rivalry, USC-Notre Dame. Before I even got to Notre Dame, everybody watched that game. Everybody remembers moments from that game that just stick out in their mind.

Notre Dame's CFP Agreement Being A Shock To USC Doesn’t Sound Right, And Neither Does Pausing The Game

Well, those words came back to bite Freeman on Monday, as USC's Lincoln Riley decided the Alamo Bowl press conference was the perfect time to hit the Fighting Irish where it hurts, quoting Marcus Freeman multiple times. 

"It's pretty simple, we both worked for months to try and find a solution. Notre Dame was very vocal about the fact that they would play us anytime, anywhere," Lincoln Riley said Monday. "Obviously, them not having a conference affiliation gives them an ability to be pretty flexible in their scheduling. We went back, Jen Cohen our AD, went back to Notre Dame a couple weeks ago 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 anytime, anywhere. 

"That proposal was rejected. Not only was it rejected, but five minutes after we got the call, they announced they had scheduled another opponent. Which I'll give them credit, that might be the fastest scheduling act in college football history."

USC Blindsided By Notre Dame's CFP MOU? Lincoln Riley Doubled Down

Yes, Notre Dame did announce a series with BYU that would replace USC just a short time after the announcement was made regarding the historic rivalry. 

But, there was also the fluff being distributed by some at USC about their lack of knowledge that Notre Dame would receive an automatic spot in the college football playoff if ranked within the top-12 moving forward. 

Either Big Ten commissioner, Tony Petitti, is very bad at his job relaying information to his athletic directors regarding this agreement, or somebody decided to use that as an extra excuse as to why the game was being paused. 

Personally, I'm going with the latter, given that's a pretty big detail to not inform your conference officials about. Now, whether it was lost in translation is another subject, but that excuse wasn't going to fly. 

Notre Dame's CFP Agreement Being A Shock To USC Doesn’t Sound Right, And Neither Does Pausing The Game

SOUTH BEND, INDIANA - OCTOBER 14: Head coach Lincoln Riley of the USC Trojans talks with head coach Marcus Freeman of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish prior to the game at Notre Dame Stadium on October 14, 2023 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

But, that did not stop Lincoln Riley from putting the attention back on the Fighting Irish for not being willing to play the game earlier in the season, as he continued his remarks. 

"So, I know there's been a lot of back and forth on it. I know college football has changed a lot, but that fact is very, very clear that this can all be settled very quickly," Riley said Monday. "Had Notre Dame lived up to their word on playing us anytime and anywhere, we'd be playing the next two years, and looking ahead after that and hopefully continuing the series. 

"They did not follow through on it, thus we are not playing them the next couple of years. We're hopeful something can be worked out in the next few years for the future. We at SC, would love for the game to continue, and we have no problems in following through on our promises in the future."

Both sides are going to have a lot to say regarding this game being paused, so take everything with a grain of salt. 

It's pretty clear that Lincoln Riley and Marcus Freeman did not exchange Christmas cards during the holiday season.