{"id":11214,"date":"2023-07-21T17:05:48","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T22:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=11214"},"modified":"2023-07-21T17:05:48","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T22:05:48","slug":"lincoln-riley-says-year-2-at-usc-feels-much-different-than-year-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/lincoln-riley-says-year-2-at-usc-feels-much-different-than-year-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln Riley says Year 2 at USC \u2018feels much different\u2019 than Year 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s tough to look at Lincoln Riley<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s first year at USC<\/strong><\/a> as anything but a success. Sure, the team didn\u2019t win the Pac-12 title or its bowl game. But the Trojans won 11 games for only the second time since Pete Carroll left town and Caleb Williams<\/a><\/strong> won the Heisman Trophy.<\/p>\n

But as Riley enters his second year leading USC, he said at Pac-12 Media Day that he feels much more comfortable in his still relatively new environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cYear two certainly feels much different than year one in a lot of ways,\u201d Riley said. \u201cIt\u2019s been great for all of us to get really settled in and acclimated to USC, to Los Angeles. Being in that market, being in that area is tremendous but it really changes everything you do in a football program. I think we\u2019ve really been able to acclimate and do maybe a much smoother, more efficient job this time around. Obviously, really excited for the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trojans went 11-3 last season, including an 8-1 record in conference play. Their losses were to Utah<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 both in the regular season and in the Pac-12 Championship Game \u2014 and to Tulane in the Cotton Bowl.<\/p>\n

Two of those losses came by just one point. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like we learned a lot in year one about about what we are,\u201d Riley said. \u201cWe took some tremendous steps, but also had some very obvious holes to fill and some improvements to be made and we feel like we\u2019ve aggressively addressed a lot of those areas. You saw the difference. Certainly I think even in spring ball and just the competitive depth within our program. We knew that that was going to be a little bit of a journey, right? This day and age, and it\u2019s been talked about a lot, you can build rosters faster than you could before. But you still can\u2019t do everything in one year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expectations are high for the Trojans in 2023. They have Williams back for one more year before he enters the NFL Draft and Riley has brought in a lot of talent around him on both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n

While a College Football Playoff appearance may have been premature in 2022, that\u2019s not the case in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were proud of what we did in year one but certainly very focused on what we felt like year two could be,\u201d Riley said. \u201cIt was fun to see, again, the competitive depth especially in some key areas, the defensive front seven chief among those. I think watching this team unfold throughout spring into summer, a lot to be excited about. We got a great opportunity in front of us. I think everybody within our program, every player senses that and wants to do a great job of taking advantage of this because these windows are short and you only get so many shots at this.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this is the second year of Riley\u2019s tenure, the even more interesting storyline regarding time is that this is USC\u2019s last year in the Pac-12.<\/p>\n

Riley said the move isn\u2019t serving as motivation for the team but is making them reflect on their conference matchups more.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes it motivate us anymore if it wasn\u2019t our last year in the Pac12?\u201d Riley said. \u201cNo. But is there also a sense of this is your last chance to play some of these teams, to go into some of these venues? Absolutely. You feel that and we want to make sure and put our best foot forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Lincoln Riley says Year 2 at USC \u2018feels much different\u2019 than Year 1<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s tough to look at Lincoln Riley\u2018s first year at USC as anything but a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}