{"id":68784,"date":"2024-09-02T05:21:27","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T10:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=68784"},"modified":"2024-09-02T05:21:27","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T10:21:27","slug":"everything-lincoln-riley-said-following-uscs-27-20-win-against-lsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/everything-lincoln-riley-said-following-uscs-27-20-win-against-lsu\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything Lincoln Riley said following USC\u2019s 27-20 win against LSU"},"content":{"rendered":"

USC head coach Lincoln Riley<\/a><\/strong> spoke to the media following the Trojans\u2019 27-20 win against No. 13 LSU on Sunday night. Here\u2019s everything Riley said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Riley opening statement<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cJust an awesome team win. Great environment in there. Great stadium. Great opponent. Two teams really went at it, kind of traded blows the entire game. Was proud of our guys because we had some missed opportunities as a football team. It felt like for a while we were outplaying them a little bit more than what the scoreboard looked like. We had a couple chances offensively. Thought we had a pretty good chance to pick the touchdown ball down there in our endzone, defensively. But our guys were resilient. They kept battling. Was proud with a lot of new players on both sides. Obviously the massive changes defensively. I was just really proud of how hard and how well\u00a0we played. How much we trusted it. And then when there was adversity, we didn\u2019t panic as a football team. We kept grinding and we were a tough, gritty, physical team that got it done in the end. That was a fun game. Hats off to LSU. Looks like they\u2019re a really good football team this year. No surprise. But proud of our guys for getting a win. Looking forward to getting back to LA. It\u2019ll be fun to get back to LA, be fun to get in the Coliseum for our first home game. I\u2019m sure our fans are pretty excited right now, pretty juiced up, as they should be. Looking forward to getting home game No. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley on what the win says about the ongoing rebuild at USC<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t coach for the media. I don\u2019t coach for headlines. We just try to do what\u2019s best in our program. We try to stay incredibly committed to it regardless of what anybody says on the outside. Whether they agree with us or don\u2019t agree with us is honestly irrelevant to us. We know what we\u2019ve been building. We\u2019re very confident with the approach that we\u2019re taking, with the people that we\u2019re putting in our program \u2014 players, staff, everyone. I just know, I\u2019m not the most experienced guy but I have been through a couple of these and I have a decent idea of what pretty good looks like. I know we\u2019re making progress. It was fun to get the win today. Opportunities like this don\u2019t come every single day \u2014 high-profile opponent, all the exciting lead up to the game \u2014 so I\u2019m glad that we took advantage of it. But regardless of what happened today, it\u2019s still not going to change what we\u2019re building and a thing we\u2019re doing. We\u2019re just so committed to it. Nothing\u2019s going to change it. We\u2019re just going to keep getting better and I\u2019m proud of us for taking this step and getting this opportunity done today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley on what message this win sends<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was some pretty good Big Ten football today. I don\u2019t know. We\u2019re just not into it for messages, man. My message is I really like my team. I like our team. I like our defense, I like our coaches, I like our offense, I like our special teams, I like the vibe of this team. It\u2019s a long, long ways to go, but I\u2019m sure glad I\u2019m coaching these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

On what made him most proud of the USC defense<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe battled all game long. We didn\u2019t give up too many explosives. We had the one coverage bust there at the end, but then we had to get some big stops there. The ones that I really point to \u2014 we had the initial goal line stop and then after the 4th-and-8 that we didn\u2019t convert offensively, that was a key moment right there. They had a chance to go up two scores. We get the stop there and then even after the explosive on the last drive, we find a way. We stop them, we hold them to a field goal. You can bring in really good coaches, which we did. You can run whatever scheme that you want to run. But at the end of the day, these guys have to trust and believe in it. We brought in some outstanding players like Kamari that have just really helped us grab hold of this defense early on. And then we\u2019ve got a lot of guys that were in the locker room before that are incredibly hungry to go play USC defense. There\u2019s a vibe and a confidence about that group right now and we\u2019re only going to get better. Really proud of the effort tonight. I\u2019m not surprised, but it was cool to see in that moment in that arena, us believe in it as much as we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley on the final touchdown from Woody Marks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew he was going to score. It\u2019s weird, I kind of had a \u2014 We were certainly trying to get some more yards and position us for a field goal if he didn\u2019t pop it. Having the timeout, we knew we could be a little bit aggressive there. It\u2019s funny, I had a flashback, the last OU \u2013 Texas game there was a very similar situation. We were a little bit farther out and we handed a ball off and it popped. I remember I had just a little flashback and I told somebody on the headsets, \u2018It wouldn\u2019t surprise me if he just creases this.\u2019 And of course it happens. It was awesome. It was blocked up well. Great run by Woody. He was a warrior for us tonight and awesome to be able to finish it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley on whether this game can impact recruiting<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt can. I haven\u2019t turned it on yet but it\u2019ll buzz for a while when I do. I think it can because you\u2019ve got recruits that are looking towards the future and they see the changes that we\u2019ve made, not just this year but in the last couple years. TO see those changes come together and see the team \u2014 not just win the game \u2014 but play the way we did. You know what I mean? I\u2019m sure anybody watching that game could see a team that was pretty together and a team that was really fighting and was playing some pretty darn good football in a lot of spurts. I think it\u2019s an exciting game when you get a stage like that, which is rare in college football. You got one day, there\u2019s no NFL games, there\u2019s not much going on. This was kind of our day here on one of the biggest stages. To show up like that, I know there was a lot of people watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley on the confidence USC had in being able to stop the run<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a good job. It\u2019s a really good offensive line, no question. Several guys on that offensive line are going to play ball for a little while. They had every right to be confident, but so did we. We just chose not to say it in the media. We were very confident in our ability to do it. It was a physical battle. There were a lot of big shots down on that field from both sides. We did a great job, I thought, condensing their run game \u2014 squeezing them to where there wasn\u2019t a bunch of huge, open gaps. They got out a couple of times on us but we made it tough on them. I thought we played physical at the point of attack. Guys were pretty gap sound. We were able to squeeze down some of those running lanes and make open-field tackles. Against a good running team like that, that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley on Miller Moss late in the game<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of belief in him. I have a lot of belief in our players, a lot of belief in Miller and his understanding of not just our system but the way we want to play. I feel like we\u2019re very much in sync in a lot of ways. He\u2019s a tough competitor. That\u2019s what he\u2019s proven. He\u2019s a tough competitor that loves his team and he\u2019s a great leader for this team. And we\u2019ve got a lot of guys like that in our locker room right now. When you do that, then you tend to have moments like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley on the final offensive drive of the first half<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMoved it down there. We were a little bit in-between there at the end if we were going to take a shot of not. But we felt Woody was running well at that point. We popped a couple of runs. We thought the run gave us a chance to crease it and if not, would help us from a field goal standpoint. We just didn\u2019t hit a good ball on the field goal. But Mike came back and hit a couple big kicks for us and obviously the last kickoff was huge. I mean huge. It was a good drive. Probably some things we could go back and do better. Was one of those opportunities that we missed that I talked about in the opening statement. But found a way and got it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Everything Lincoln Riley said following USC\u2019s 27-20 win against LSU<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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