Lincoln Riley shares takeaways from USC scrimmage

USC held a scrimmage Saturday at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and head coach Lincoln Riley was very happy with how the practice went.

“It was a little bit different than some of our practices here as of late in that there were some pretty big momentum school swings in the scrimmage,” Riley said after the scrimmage during a media availability session. “When you’re the head coach, you always look at it from two points of view. Sides were able to maintain momentum longer. But on the flip side of it, you want the other side when it’s not going well to be able to turn it around quicker.”

It was the Trojans’ first time back at their home stadium since they played Notre Dame last season.

There was great weather in Southern California on the day as well, setting the scene for a great day of action for USC.

“The offense started pretty quickly, had a good first couple of drives,” Riley said. “Defense dominated the middle part of the scrimmage. I think at one point we had six or seven straight series with no points. Then we did a simulated overtime. Not really simulated, we kind of went at it. We did a full overtime at the end, which there was a lot of back and forth on. We split the teams up and it got pretty competitive there at the end and finished with a pretty kind of epic kind of two point attempt there at the end, which was fun. It was a competitive day.”

Lincoln Riley said the team was able to work 85-plus plays during the scrimmage

The scrimmage, in addition to being competitive, was also full of different plays and reps. From the overtime period to special teams to a few other drills, it was a packed day of stuff to do for the team.

“Guys stayed pretty healthy, which was obviously when you’re getting these live situations, that’s obviously a big point,” Lincoln Riley said. “We’re probably right now the healthiest that we’ve been all spring so we’re starting to get some more of the bodies back and be able to get some of those guys reps which has been good. We got a full 85-plus plays. We were able to do a couple other drills. We got a lot of live special teams work today.”

Riley also named defensive lineman Anthony Lucas, wide receiver Zachariah Branch and wide receiver Kyron Hudson as some of the standouts from the scrimmage.

“Anthony Lucas had a sack, strip and then picked up the fumble,” Riley said. “I couldn’t tell for sure if he was a part of the sack. It was close but he picked up the fumble and scored, which was a big play. Defensively had a couple of really key fourth down stops defensively where guys made really sure tackles. Had a couple of big plays on offense. Zack had a couple of couple of really nice plays Kyron Hudson had a really nice play in the overtime period. Backs all had some productive runs. But there were also a lot of tackles for loss and guys in the backfield too. There was a lot of standouts with that many plays.”

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