USC is winding down its fourth week of spring practice, and after Thursday's session coach Lincoln Riley spoke a lot about the state of the defensive line with high-profile transfer additions Jamaal Jarrett and Keeshawn Silver while spotlighting the growth he's seen from the linebacker unit.
But perhaps his most notable comment was in praising Purdue transfer offensive guard DJ Wingfield.
"He's really impressive, really impressive, really good player. Honestly, he's probably -- we obviously thought enough of him to sign him -- he's probably a little bit better than I thought he was and I thought he was pretty good. So he's done very well," Riley said. "Incredibly professional in his approach. He's one of those guys that you plug him in there and even in the beginning of spring it looks like he's been with us like forever. If you came in here and watched us, you wouldn't know that he's just getting going with us and our system. So yeah, he's done a really nice job. He and Elijah have developed a really nice rapport together, which has been good to see. He's a smart player, he gives us position flex, certainly has a bright future."
Watch the full interview with Riley and scroll down for a complete transcript of his comments Thursday ...
As Keeshawn Silver has ramped up, what's he shown you this spring?
"He's getting better and better. He's not been able to go into any of the full contact stuff yet, but we've been able to ramp him up in terms of individuals and some of the non-contact work. But yeah, you see some of why we recruited him. He's a really, really big guy that moves well. He's handled the injury and all that very well. Our staff's done a great job kind of post-surgery with him, which we knew all that coming in. Yeah, excited to get him out. It's right there on the edge of if we would do competitive stuff with him in spring ball. We probably won't just because we're right here at the end now, want to make sure that knee gets kind of the full treatment and just kind of the full go there. But he's doing well. Certainly counting on him to be ready here in August to step out here and make a big difference."
How have the young defensive linemen and the veterans meshed together?
"Really well, really well. It's one of the closer groups, I think led very well by Coach Nua and Coach Henny and how well those guys work together. I think it's a great example for our guys of two coaches coming together and really kind of becoming as one -- great example for the unit. It's good. It's an energetic group, it's a confident group. They're really out to prove something -- you feel that on our defensive line right now. The competition's high. You feel them more pushing each other and like just wanting the whole group to be great, so it's in a very unselfish manner right now, but yeah, the young guys have come in and brought a lot of energy, these older guys now or some of the guys that have been in the program have improved or want to step up as leaders and kind of really help push the group forward. It's in a really healthy place."
What's been your assessment on DJ Wingfield?
"He's really impressive, really impressive, really good player. Honestly, he's probably -- we obviously thought enough of him to sign him -- he's probably a little bit better than I thought he was and I thought he was pretty good. So he's done very well. Incredibly professional in his approach. He's one of those guys that you plug him in there and even in the beginning of spring it looks like he's been with us like forever. If you came in here and watched us, you wouldn't know that he's just getting going with us and our system. So yeah, he's done a really nice job. He and Elijah have developed a really nice rapport together, which has been good to see. He's a smart player, he gives us position flex, certainly has a bright future."
