​Lincoln Riley was very clearly a top-five college football coach in 2020. His Oklahoma Sooners made three straight College Football Playoff appearances when the playoff was just a four-team event. Oklahoma won four straight Big 12 championships under Riley from 2017 through 2020, making a New Year’s Six bowl each season. Even in 2022, Riley — after a strong first season at USC — had a claim to being a top-five coach in the sport. That can’t be the case now, and USA TODAY Sports experts agree.A USA TODAY Sports panel of college football experts voted on the best coaches in college football entering the 2026 season. Riley came in 19th, which seems about right and is a reflection of how ordinary he and USC have been the past three seasons, from 2023 through 2025.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement”Riley might’ve been near the top of the list among all coaches nationally as recently as 2020,” the panel wrote. “Things have been much rockier at USC, which hit a high with an 11-win 2022 season in Riley’s debut but has since gone 24-15 with just one ranked finish. But things are starting to look up after USC went 7-2 in the Big Ten last year and then inked one of the nation’s top recruiting classes.”If Lincoln Riley wants back in the top 10, he absolutely has to make the College Football Playoff and either win a game or reach the quarterfinals via a first-round bye. If Riley wants back into the top five, he must make the College Football Playoff semifinals and reestablish himself as a coach whose teams compete for national titles, as they did at Oklahoma from 2017 through 2019. Riley still hasn’t coached in a national championship game. The sooner (pun not intended) he does that at USC, the quicker he will return to the top tier of coaches, but with a daunting Big Ten schedule this season, the burden is on Riley to prove himself. The experts are right to be skeptical.Contact/Follow @TrojansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of USC Trojans news, notes and opinion.This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USA TODAY Sports college football experts are correct on Lincoln Riley