Dan Mullen sets Twitter on fire with shot at Lincoln Riley

All week, we heard about how hot the seat was for Chip Kelly. He was coming off a tough stretch of games and heading into battle with Lincoln Riley and USC football.

The Trojans hadn’t exactly been lighting it up in recent weeks either, falling to 7-4 before Saturday’s rivalry game in Los Angeles.

The hosting Trojans needed a win to secure a better bowl berth and ensure that the 2023 season wasn’t a complete failure — although it really was given the expectations. Both Riley and Kelly fell short of expectations, but only one was considered to be on the hot seat.

Dan Mullen believes that’s a mistake.

The former Florida and Mississippi State head coach posed an interesting question. Is Kelly the right coach to be on the hot seat? He’s improved UCLA every year essentially and the Bruins were unranked to begin the 2023 campaign.

USC, on the other hand, was a top-10 caliber team with the reigning Heisman Trophy winner back and yet the Trojans are limping to a 7-5 record.

Unacceptable.

Is Lincoln Riley on the hot seat?

The question of if Riley is on the hot seat compared to should he be on the hot seat are completely different. He is not a hot-seat coach right not but he absolutely should be.

USC paid him big money to leave Oklahoma and compete for national titles in Los Angeles, but all he’s done is fall short of a conference title in 2022 and barely make a bowl game in 2023. That’s not exactly successful.

Meanwhile, Kelly has improved this program from where he took it over.

Mullen’s question is a good one, and it’s setting the internet on fire.