Lincoln Riley excited about potential for USC defense, but ‘A lot of work to do’

Giving up 28 points and nearly 400 yards of offense to San Jose State in the 2023 season opener has many USC fans assuming a repeat of the 2022 season is already underway. Last year, an explosive USC offense — perhaps the best offense in the nation — was ultimately derailed by a defense that collapsed repeatedly in the fourth quarter and was gashed for huge chunks of yards. (That, plus a sizeable assist from a Williams’ hamstring injury).

USC head coach Lincoln Riley isn’t ready to start walking down that path yet.

“Here we go, everybody’s going to write the narrative after the first game,” Riley said when asked after the game if the defense is already a concern.

While he’s nowhere near ready to hit the panic button after 60 minutes of football. He does see the distance that needs to be covered over the coming weeks and months.

“Listen, it’s going to be a climb,” Riley said. “It’s going to be a climb. I like what I see out there in terms of our good plays and how our guys are flying around. The depth that we have, we will continue to improve.

“Excited about where it can be,” Riley said of the defense. “But we got a lot of work to do.”

Cobb on the Trojans’ Defense

Mason Cobb manned the middle of the USC defense for the first time on Saturday. He finished with six tackles and tied for the team lead with two tackles for loss.

He seemingly shared Riley’s mix of frustration and optimism.

“Yeah mean, a lot to work on,” Cobb said. “But the sky’s the limit. You’ve seen those plays where we were all on our stuff. So, just trying to make sure we limit those mistakes. I think a lot of it was self-inflicted. A lot of the plays we were right there. [We] just have to finish. But yeah, I would say, man, we’re got a lot of work to do.”

USC Unable to Corral Cordeiro

The Trojans got solid play from the newcomers up front, especially along the defensive line. It’s clear the roster improved there from last season. Anthony Lucas, Jamil Muhammad, Bear Alexander, Kyon Barrs, Jack Sullivan, Elijah Hughes all showed flashes and Stanley Ta’ufo’ou and Solomon Byrd are improved from last year when surrounded with a stronger cast. But there were still too many big plays from an opponent, either gashed runs through giant holes or a quarterback escaping through a vacated rush lane and picking up big yardage.

San Jose State quarterback Chevan Cordeiro rushed 10 times for 52 yards, numbers that looked worse thanks to a 22-yard sack he took. Arguably the most frustrating play for USC fans from Cordeiro was a third-and-22 where he escaped out of the pocket for 28 yards and a first down.

“We called several things throughout the game,” Riley said of how the Trojans defended Cordeiro. “We had a spy on him a lot of times and a couple of times we got lost in there going a little too aggressive. And a couple of times he just flat-out outran us. I mean, he’s a good player. That part was disappointing.”

But the play that clearly got to Riley the most was what he called an “inexcusable” busted coverage at the end of the first half that allowed San Jose State to score a touchdown on a long throw with time winding down. He was also bothered by the penalties for holding and pass interference in the secondary.

“Those are the things that, you take what had the makings of being a good defensive performance, but those are the mistakes you’ve got to correct,” Riley said. “Those are the self-inflicted errors. Especially the penalties. Especially the busted coverage before half.”

The Trojans started true freshman Tackett Curtis at linebacker. Defensive lineman Elijah Hughes and rush end Braylon Shelby saw the field early. And while Bear Alexander and Anthony Lucas are known names as huge additions from the transfer portal, they’re still true sophomores who didn’t get significant time at Georgia and Texas A&M, respectively, last season.

“I liked the way some of the young guys flew around,” Riley said. “We had some young guys that made some young guy mistakes, too. Which, that’s a little bit to be expected.”

USC Looking for Improvement

Riley has been consistent in his belief that the Trojans need to improve each week in order to get where the want to go. He was prepared to see things to work on after this first game no matter the outcome.

“No matter what the score was — if this was a three-point game, if it was a 28-point game, if it was a 50-point game — there’s going to be that climb to the next step,” Riley said. “And that’s where our focus is going to stay. I love what we have in there. Kind of like what Mason said. We have a lot of work to do and we’re the right people to get it done.”

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