Lincoln Riley looks like he's never coached a football game before with end-of-half bungle vs. Texas A&M football
Texas A&M football is tied with the USC Trojans at 7 points each at halftime of the Las Vegas bowl. If there was one phrase that would well sum up the first half for the Aggies, it would be "missed opportunities."
Two improbable interceptions by USC have prevented the Aggies from going up by two to three scores in this one, including an end zone pick off of a deflected pass. BJ Mayes matched that with an interception of his own, but the Aggies were unable to make anything out of it on offense, despite a quick start.
But it was the end of the half for the Trojans that is most recently responsible for this game still being tied. USC had a golden opportunity to score a TD or kick a field goal at the end of the half— but not if Lincoln Riley had anything to say about it!
The apparently-hapless USC coach had a first down inside the Aggie 30 with over a minute to go and all three timeouts. Even though the clock was running, Riley was content to watch it tick away until fourth down, when he finally called a timeout with 18 seconds remaining.
This was an extremely strange decision. He was letting the clock bleed out for some reason, and then stopped it to kick a field goal with a lot of time remaining. Now, the Aggies didn't make him pay, but why not run it down to four or five seconds left before calling that timeout?
For that matter, why not call the timeouts earlier? They were running the ball and winding the clock down after down, and Riley just sat on his hands.
Anyway, they missed the kick, which was just the cherry on top of this head-scratcher. Riley should prioritize hiring some high school kid with 10,000+ hours on the NCAA video game to help him manage the clock next year— it wouldn't be any worse than what we just saw!