{"id":9349,"date":"2023-07-02T03:05:56","date_gmt":"2023-07-02T08:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=9349"},"modified":"2023-07-02T03:05:56","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T08:05:56","slug":"how-lincoln-riley-has-showed-self-awareness-during-2023-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/how-lincoln-riley-has-showed-self-awareness-during-2023-offseason\/","title":{"rendered":"How Lincoln Riley has showed self-awareness during 2023 offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

On3\u2019s J.D. PicKell continues his team-by-team assessment of college football programs heading into the 2023 season. Recently the college football expert unveiled his prediction of the Pac-12\u2019s USC Trojans<\/strong><\/a> record. But before he revealed his prediction, PicKell praised the Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley<\/a><\/strong> for how he showed self-awareness this offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interesting thing and the impressive thing to me about USC this offseason is the way Lincoln Riley has addressed the roster through the portal\u2026 the pieces they\u2019ve added, to me, are showing a lot of self-awareness with Lincoln Riley,\u201d said PicKell.<\/a> \u201cBecause whenever you have your weaknesses, it\u2019s not fun to look in the mirror look at your weaknesses. We\u2019d much rather go back to we\u2019re with and lean into our strengths. Lincoln Riley, he\u2019s an offensive guy, and he says, okay, we\u2019re losing games. Maybe we need to score points. Maybe they get more pieces to put more points on the board. We Rev the engine on the horsepower offensively. That would have been the easy thing to do. Instead, he goes to the portal and takes eight of the 14 guys from the transfer portal on the defensive side.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trojans made most of their transfer portal moves on the defensive side of the ball, bringing in some serious talent. Topping the list of players is former Texas A&M edge Anthony Lucas<\/a><\/strong>, Oklahoma State linebacker Mason Cobb<\/a><\/strong>, and Georgia d-lineman Bear Alexander<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Riley had a strong notion of bringing in individuals to play within USC\u2019s front seven. A group that PicKell coins as trench players.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix of those guys on the defensive side were what I call trench players. So like linebackers, edge defenders, defensive line; guys are going to make your football team tougher within that front seven. That was the emphasis for Lincoln Riley through the transfer portal, and that\u2019s self-awareness to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he continued, the college football expert likened the USC program to a speedboat. Offensively they are fast and flying around. But defensively, they are taking on water. And instead of repeating the mistake of last year of trying to muscle through their defensive woes, the Trojans took a different approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cUSC is built like a speedboat\u2026 they\u2019re speedboat they have the ability to go fast. But you see, the speed boat\u2019s taking on a little bit of water. Everyone is saying, hey, coach, taking on some water here. The defense is with 30 points a game. We got problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have two choices. You can say, okay, we\u2019re a speed boat. Let\u2019s go faster and get to shore and just gun it and try to find a way to get through there. Or you have the self-awareness and humility to say, okay, let\u2019s take a step back. Let\u2019s address that. What do we need to do to fix that? And that\u2019s what I saw from them in the portal. That\u2019s the way that I think they handled this past offseason, and I think that\u2019s gonna be a benefit to them when it comes to the 2023 season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley had to take a tough look in the mirror following USC\u2019s last two losses to close the season. Despite being injured, star quarterback Caleb Williams<\/a><\/strong> did all he could to keep the Trojans in contention to win the Pac-12 championship and their New Year\u2019s Six bowl game. But USC still came up short in both games because of defensive letdowns. This year Riley is trying to avoid repeating the mistakes of 2022. And his actions in the transfer portal reflect that which is why PicKell is tipping his hat to the trojan\u2019s head man.<\/p>\n

The post How Lincoln Riley has showed self-awareness during 2023 offseason<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On3\u2019s J.D. PicKell continues his team-by-team assessment of college football programs heading into the 2023…<\/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-9349","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\/9349","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=9349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}