By Bruce Feldman, Antonio Morales and Ralph Russo

UCF has inquired about the availability of USC coach Lincoln Riley as it searches for a replacement for Gus Malzahn, three people who have been privy to those conversations told The Athletic on Wednesday.

There has been no indication Riley is interested in making the move, the people said. He is three seasons into a reported 10-year contract that pays him about $10 million per year.

The people spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity because all the discussions were private and UCF was not publicly revealing details of its coaching search.

Riley’s contract is not publicly available because USC is a private school, but extracting him from Southern California — if he wanted to leave — would likely cost tens of millions of dollars for either the Trojans or the school looking to hire him away.

Representatives from UCF reached out to Riley’s representatives last weekend to inquire about his interest in making a move across the country, one source said. Any discussions about adjusting the terms of Riley’s contract would be between him and USC, sources said.

The first source added that UCF has not received any word from Riley’s camp that he is interested in leaving USC, and the school is still looking at multiple candidates to fill its head coaching vacancy.

Firing Riley, whose win total with the Trojans has decreased in each of his three seasons, would cost USC about $90 million, according to one of the sources. If Riley were to leave for another school, he would owe USC nothing. But UCF is not in position to replicate the deal Riley has at USC. Malzahn made $4 million in 2024 at UCF.

Two sources said even if Riley had an interest in making the move, it would require some payout of his current deal with USC to make up for what he would be giving up in the transition — like a professional sports trade where one team pays a chunk of a player’s remaining salary on a large contract and the receiving team picks up the rest.

Riley was hired at USC by former athletic director Mike Bohn, who resigned amid controversy in the spring of 2023. University president Carol Folt oversaw the hire as well and will retire this summer, which means two of the main parties involved in bringing Riley to USC will be gone.

Jen Cohen, the former Washington athletic director, was hired in August 2023 to lead the athletic department. She inherited Riley and his contract.

She’s in the unenviable position of having an underperforming football program but a coach who is too expensive to move on from. In the spring, Cohen navigated a delicate situation with men’s basketball coach Andy Enfield, whose tenure had run its course but his track record was too good to justify a firing. He eventually took the SMU job, and Cohen hired Eric Musselman from Arkansas to replace him.

Even with a suitor for Riley, getting out from under his deal looks more difficult.

Malzahn left UCF after four seasons as head coach to become offensive coordinator at Florida State. The Knights have gone 10-15 overall and 5-13 in league play in their first two seasons in the Big 12 after making the move from the American Athletic Conference. UCF received only a partial share of Big 12 revenue last year, about $18 million, and is scheduled to receive about $19 million for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

The number jumps to a full share in 2025-26, which should be about double those figures.

Riley is 25-14 at USC since being lured to Los Angeles from Oklahoma after the 2021 regular season. It was a seismic move for the Trojans, swiping away a coach who had a 55-10 record in Norman and two Heisman Trophy winners in Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray.

The Trojans went 11-3 in Riley’s first season with another Heisman winner in Caleb Williams, the star quarterback who followed the coach from Oklahoma to USC. But the results have been trending in the wrong direction since.

USC went 8-5 in 2023, its final season in the Pac-12, and wrapped up its first regular season in the Big Ten with a 6-6 overall record (4-5 in league play).

After the 2023 season, Riley told The Athletic that he “didn’t come here (USC) for some short-term thing and as long as SC continues to give us the support and the things we need to continue to build this, this was not a two-year rebuild.”

Recruiting hasn’t lived up to the high expectations that came with Riley’s hire. USC continues to regress on the field each season, and the program doesn’t appear to have much direction moving forward, making the outlook for Riley look hazy at best.

(Photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)

DENVER — Jerry Jeudy almost got to be homecoming king.

He only slowed down Monday night to soak up the jeers of fans who once rooted for him, but the Jameis Winston roller coaster fell off the tracks with two picks in the final two minutes.

The Cleveland Browns rewrote some records but not the overall story of their disappointing season, as Winston threw for a franchise-best 497 yards and four touchdowns but also had a pair of interceptions that the host Denver Broncos returned for scores.

The Browns, no longer boring but still bad, couldn’t overcome their sloppiness and Winston’s three turnovers. Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian’s 44-yard interception return with 1:48 remaining came when the Browns were driving to set up a potential go-ahead field goal attempt.

But that Winston whiplash only led to more disappointment as the Broncos scored the final 10 points to secure a 41-32 win in a game that featured five lead changes and 163 yards worth of touchdown passes in 11 seconds in the third quarter.

The Broncos improved to 8-5 and moved a step closer to securing a playoff berth. The Browns suffered their fifth straight road loss and fell to 3-9.

“I messed it up for us in front of the whole wide world,” Winston said.

MCMILLIAN PICK-SIX TO POSSIBLY ICE IT.

📺: #CLEvsDEN on ESPN
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/byTyDJ5y47

— NFL (@NFL) December 3, 2024

Jeudy had nine receptions for 235 yards, the most yards by a receiver facing his former team in NFL history. He repeatedly sprinted past the Broncos’ secondary and also blew past his previous career-best game of 154 receiving yards in the 2022 season finale.

Winston and Jeudy connected on a 70-yard touchdown early in the third quarter to get Cleveland within three. In the fourth quarter, Jeudy joined Cincinnati Bengals star Ja’Marr Chase as the only players to post 200-yard receiving games this season. Winston bested his single-game record of 458 passing yards in 2019 and Josh McCown’s Browns record of 457 in 2015. But after the Broncos settled for a field goal and a two-point lead inside the final three minutes, the McMillian interception on a sideline route essentially ended the chances of Winston leading a comeback on his big night.

“Bad throw,” Winston said, making it clear he didn’t want to get into further details.

Despite Jeudy’s domination of multiple Denver coverages, Cleveland didn’t have him on the field when McMillian made the interception. Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said Jeudy was taking a play to rest. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered, but that’s the kind of strange decision — the pick occurred on the first play out of the two-minute warning — that’s been tied to this Browns team all year. In early October, Stefanski said multiple times that Deshaun Watson gave them the best chance to win, and he stuck with Watson despite the quarterback never throwing for 200 yards in a game and Cleveland never reaching 20 points in his seven starts.

Watson only threw for 421 total yards over his last three starts and only had five touchdown passes all season. Winston was a couple of decisions away from surpassing that touchdown total in one game Monday night.

Jeudy backed up his previous statement that he’s “been open my entire career” with another explosive performance against the team that traded him to Cleveland in March.

He had just one reception in each of Watson’s last three starts. Elijah Moore and Cedric Tillman have become playmakers in the Winston-led offense, too. It’s clear that the hesitance to change quarterbacks ended any chance of the Browns salvaging this season, and what was a joyless and relatively hopeless offensive operation had its best showing Monday night with 552 yards and 28 first downs before the fun ended with Winston’s late interceptions.

The Browns got to the 2-yard line while trailing by two scores with 44 seconds remaining before Winston threw into traffic and was intercepted a third time by Cody Barton.

“I think we played our butts off all around,” Jeudy said. “We just couldn’t finish how we were supposed to. That was a great team we faced. We just got to find a way to finish.”

Moore, the intended receiver on the McMillian interception, said the Broncos cornerback undercut the route. Moore blamed himself for hesitating and not making sure he touched McMillian immediately afterward, which allowed McMillian to return to his feet and sprint for the touchdown.

Late in the first half, Nik Bonitto read Winston’s eyes on a pass that he stepped in front of and returned for a 71-yard score.

BRONCOS PICK SIX

📺: #CLEvsDEN on ESPN
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/X8eJpG9yUj

— NFL (@NFL) December 3, 2024

“I’m just praying for the Lord to deliver me from pick sixes,” Winston said.

Yes, he really said that. He really did all that, too, releasing six passes that resulted in touchdowns — four to his team and two to the Broncos. He went to Jeudy on the Browns’ first play of the night for a gain of 44 and wisely kept going back. Jeudy encouraged the home crowd to boo louder after his first reception, and after his touchdown and ensuing two-point conversion, he posed and invited the hate.

“They only boo when they know there’s something great in you,” Jeudy said.

Entering Monday night, Jeudy was 29th in the NFL with 645 receiving yards and tied for 25th at 14.3 yards per reception. Now, he’s tied with CeeDee Lamb of the Dallas Cowboys for fifth with 880 receiving yards and ninth at 16.3 yards per reception.

For much of the night, it looked like Winston would also take a leap — and maybe even into Cleveland’s future plans. He carried a perfect passer rating into the second quarter. On his first two touchdowns, he showed some touch in placing the ball to different parts of the end zone where only David Njoku could get it. The second one to Njoku came late in the first half and followed Bonitto’s interception, allowing the Browns to keep it a one-score game.

Early in the third quarter, Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix threw a 93-yard touchdown strike to Marvin Mims Jr. The Browns answered on the next play with the 70-yarder from Winston to Jeudy.

Ultimately, though, keeping it close — and Winston being close to a night for the ages — ended with Cleveland doing the best it could. Even with the defense twice forcing the Broncos into second-half field goals and twice intercepting Nix, Denver got its defenders into the right places at the most crucial times.

“The team doesn’t deserve that,” Winston said. “Bad throws. I have to be better.”

(Photo: David Zalubowski / Associated Press)

Now, this is the Bryce Young the NFL had been expecting.

The 2023 No. 1 pick has played much better since returning to the Carolina Panthers starting lineup five weeks ago, and the gradual progression of late has been the most encouraging. A coach who recently prepared for his team to play against the Panthers noted that Young’s comfort in the pocket has been a launching point for improvement.

Young has completed 60.4 percent of his passes over the past five games for 1,082 yards, six touchdowns, three interceptions and an 83.5 passer rating. He’s also logged 82 rushing yards and a score. They aren’t gaudy numbers, but they’ve been efficient.

And let’s not forget, the Panthers still have enough holes on the roster that they’ll be in contention for the No. 1 pick in April. Young returned to a team that was again a seller at the trade deadline.

Young, who has had three head coaches (one interim) in two seasons, started poorly and was benched after two games. He didn’t throw a touchdown pass as the Panthers only generated 13 points in two blowout losses, and he was picked three times and sacked six times.

So the Panthers turned to veteran Andy Dalton, a controversial move that made some around the league wonder whether they were done with Young altogether. Head coach Dave Canales had been credited for his previous work with Russell Wilson and Baker Mayfield, so Young’s two-game trial his new coach was alarmingly short after the Panthers invested so much to draft him.

To think, Young’s return to the field wasn’t even part of the plan. Dalton injured his thumb in a car accident, so the Panthers had no choice but to go back to Young.

He had one of his best statistical performances in his re-debut, a 28-14 loss to the Broncos, before leading the Panthers to tight victories against the Saints and Giants. But Young really caught everyone’s attention when he rallied the offense for a game-tying drive against the Chiefs, who ultimately won at the buzzer. And Sunday, Young was again nails in crunchtime in a tough overtime loss to the Buccaneers.

“The surprising thing before (the benching) was that he struggled to deal with pressure. That wasn’t an issue in college,” a rival executive said. “He’s more confident now. He was taking a beating before. He seemed like a battered player.

“They’ve gotten better as an offense overall. Sitting down and coming back, he’s more confident in what he’s doing.”

Young was sacked 62 times in 16 starts as a rookie, so the pocket jitters were understandable. He’s also dealt with scheme and regime changes. Force a young quarterback to perpetually play catch-up to the environment around him, and the fundamentals can get lost.

Since the chaos has settled in Carolina, Young has developed more trust with his skill players. He only had two completions of at least 20 yards in his first two starts of the season, but he has 15 such plays since returning.

Things are finally moving in the right direction, with Young and Canales looking like a better pair than it appeared in September.

“Bryce had a rough go, but it seems like he is starting to understand the offense,” another evaluator said. “He’s getting protected a little better and being decisive. He did go No. 1 for a reason.”

First, Cousins

Kirk Cousins is coming off his worst outing with the Atlanta Falcons, tossing four interceptions in a 17-13 loss to a Los Angeles Chargers team with a strong defense. But the 36-year-old now leads the NFL with 13 interceptions, and he has no touchdowns against six picks during a three-game losing streak that’s dropped the Falcons into a tie with the Buccaneers in the NFC South.

With those factors, along with Cousins clearly still recovering from a torn Achilles, there will be mounting pressure to turn toward rookie Michael Penix Jr. The first-round pick has blown away the Falcons’ brass, from the way he carried himself in the building over the offseason to his regular-season work on the practice field. There’s a lot of optimism over Penix’s future.

But there’s also hope for the present. Cousins signed a four-year, $180 million contract last offseason, and the Falcons own the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Bucs. The Falcons rank fourth in passing yards and eighth in total yards this season, so the offense has pulled its weight, even if it’s been sporadic at times, including the four-pick performance costing Atlanta a win.

This is all to say Cousins should, in theory, give the Falcons a better chance to reach the playoffs than a rookie with five career passing attempts. Oh, and the Falcons are about to visit the Minnesota Vikings, so there’s no reason to think they’d shelve Cousins before an emotional game against his former team.

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But what if the slump continues, or the Falcons fall a couple of games behind the Bucs? It’d be logical to give Penix a look down the stretch to at least open the possibility of shifting to Plan B in 2025, especially since he’s been crushing it in practice.

There’d also be a benefit to keeping Cousins healthy, considering how difficult it is for anyone to come back so quickly from an Achilles injury. Cousins has $27.5 million in guaranteed money in 2025, so it’d be natural to want to get the most out of him under the circumstances.

These decisions aren’t made in a vacuum, though. If Penix played well down the stretch, there’d be more pressure to play him in 2025. And if the Falcons agreed with that sentiment, they’d have to find a new home for Cousins, who has a no-trade clause.

The Falcons could handle the financial fallout of parting with Cousins because they’d be promoting a quarterback on a rookie contract, but it’s also the type of decision that could dramatically backfire if Penix didn’t immediately pan out. And no matter how well a quarterback performs in practice, you don’t know how a QB will look in a game until he amasses enough experience.

It’s an enticing thought, but probably not something the Falcons should act upon unless it becomes absolutely necessary.

GO DEEPER

Josh Allen, Saquon Barkley, Lamar Jackson and a sizzling MVP race: Sando’s Pick Six

Back on top

Josh Allen returned to the top of the rankings for the first time since Weeks 4-5. The Buffalo Bills QB opened the season at No. 2 behind Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes. Allen remained there for three weeks and then struggled for a couple of games before tumbling to No. 4 for four weeks. He earned strong consideration at No. 1 a week ago, and his incredible performance in the snow against the 49ers, coupled with Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson’s loss to the Eagles, solidified the change.

Amari Cooper and Josh Allen connect for the ultimate snow game touchdown ‼️

🎥 @NFL pic.twitter.com/xcOw7jZSEB

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) December 2, 2024

Allen’s passing/receiving touchdown will be one of the highlights of the season, the answer to a trivia question and possibly one of the most iconic plays in Bills history. Maybe, for some, it will be viewed as his MVP moment.

But from this vantage point, Allen began his mission to overtake Jackson in the MVP race in Week 11 with his 26-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-2 to effectively beat the Chiefs. The race is far from a formality, though, as Jackson, Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff and Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley don’t figure to be going anywhere.

Jackson’s numbers are still better across the board, save for rushing touchdowns, where Allen has a 6-3 edge. Jackson’s Ravens also blew out Allen’s Bills in Week 4.

But the Bills are in contention for the AFC’s No. 1 seed, while Allen is coming through with some big moments down the stretch. There’s a legitimate argument to be made for the primary characters in the race.

Injury notes

• Baker Mayfield should be good to go this week against the Raiders, according to league sources. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB was still sore Monday after a Panthers defender stepped on the back of his right leg Sunday, causing Mayfield to visit the injury tent and wear a walking boot after the game. But there was no need to undergo further testing. Mayfield has played through far more serious injuries in the past.

• Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said Monday they’re still assessing options with Trevor Lawrence, who suffered a scary concussion Sunday against the Texans. Lawrence will remain in the rankings until a decision has been made on his availability.

• Drew Lock became the 45th QB to appear in the rankings this season because he started the Giants’ last game and the team declined to announce which of Daniel Jones’ former backups would start its upcoming game against the Saints.

Dropped out of rankings: Giants’ Tommy DeVito (forearm injury), No. 32 last week.

(Photo of Bryce Young: Matt Kelley / Getty Images)