EUGENE, Oregon -- After USC's 36-27 loss at No. 6-ranked Oregon -- the Trojans' fourth loss in the last five games -- coach Lincoln Riley was asked a lot of big-picture questions about the state of his program.
Like, the gap that seemed to exist Saturday night in terms of the speed and physicality the Ducks delivers upon the Trojans, about needing a lot more from the offensive and defensive lines, about why this season just never came together like Riley, his players and the fans had hoped.
Watch the postgame press conference here and scroll down for a complete transcript of his comments ...
LINCOLN RILEY TRANSCRIPT
Opening comments ...
"Tough loss tonight. I thought the guys really battled, put ourselves in a couple holes and we were able to make a run there both at the end of the first half and there at the end of the game. But just didn't quite play clean enough. Really battled. I thought the guys really fought, man. I don't know if I've ever played in a game or coached in a game where we had as many guys banged up, as many guys coming in and out of the game. [We had] even difficulty practicing, especially defensively and in the secondary it was certainly a challenge. We had some guys battling, probably some guys that -- not from a safety standpoint -- but probably shouldn't have been playing just in terms of their ability to help, but we just really didn't have anybody else so guys stepped up. I'm really proud of those guys.
"We gave ourselves some opportunities, missed a few in the first half, missed a few in the second half that were right there, and obviously that's kind of been the tale of this second half of the season for us is we've been -- we just haven't quite been good enough, we haven't quite made enough of the key plays and we missed a few key moments to be able to win some of these games. We knew a good opponent here tonight that's got a lot of momentum, we knew coming into this that we were going to have to play a little bit more clean. Like I said, proud of the fight.
"Just, I know everybody's frustrated just because we've been close to winning all these games, so we've got one left in front of us, which is an important game for a lot of reasons -- senior day at home in the Coliseum playing against one of our rivals. Obviously, it will be a very important game to our locker room and our guys will be ready to go prepare and give it one last shot for the end of the regular season."
What did Oregon's collective speed and physicality reveal to you about the gap between the two programs, but more so where you're at now and where you need to be to compete for the top-end goals?
"I mean, there's each year. We were the team sitting in the conference championship game last year and beating everybody in the league other than Utah. So tonight, they were a deeper football team. I thought tonight they played better on the lines of scrimmage than we did. We threw some good shots in there, but there's still certainly some depth issues that showed up, and they're probably a deeper roster than us right now -- they're also a much healthier roster than we are now too, so I think that compounded a little bit. But yeah, we've got to continue -- looking big picture, got to continue to make gains. We know that. We've got to continue to address some of the areas within the program and within the roster that have got to get better -- we realize that. But, you know, kind of been the theme of the last several weeks is we're not that far off -- we're not. We've got work to do, but that's kind of big picture right now. We've got a big game coming up here against UCLA that I know how important that is. We need to be ready to go for that one."
Now that Pac-12 title door is now closed, what is the message, how do you move forward?
"Yeah, I think what I just said is we got one chance here in the regular season to play together, we've got one more shot in the Coliseum, we've got one more chance to play UCLA -- a longtime historical rival for us. And I think just for the locker room, these guys have gone through a lot this year. They've hung in there, they've kept swinging, there's a lot of unity in that locker room, and think they will very much appreciate and cherish one of their last times to play the game together. And that's what you do. Yeah, it's the first game that we've played here at USC where you're out of a championship race. We don't intend on playing many more like this, but games like this show the character of your program and the character of the people in it, so that's what we get a chance to go put on display next Saturday."
Do you feel there needs to be more of an emphasis in the program of developing talent in the trenches?
"It's a climb. There's a crazy emphasis on doing it right now, but you don't turn all that over, you don't turn all that over from kind of where this thing was to all of a sudden being the most elite team on the offensive and defensive line. It's not going to happen that fast. I think we've improved in a lot of areas, we've done a lot of great things in the two years here, but obviously that's an area that of course has to continue to improve. That's, a lot of times with championship-level football, that's the separating factor, and we know that. So there's been a heavy emphasis on it, and that's why we've won the amount of games we've won in the two years we've been here. But of course, does it need to get better? Hell yeah. Is it going to get better? Hell yeah."
What changes did you try to make on a short week after the defensive staff shake up?
"Yeah, I thought the staff did a good job, guys played hard defensively. We got some key stops there. The first two long ones that get out, I mean, again, you've got guys playing in there that are probably about 70 percent right now and that's just kind of what they had. I thought the coaches did a good job rallying the guys, coming in playing with energy, the guys fought all night. It's admittedly not the easiest of situations, but I wouldn't have changed anything about how our guys handled it. I thought the defensive staff with the adjustments did everything that they could."
How tough was it to give up those three big plays initially?
"Yeah, no, that was tough because part of goal was to be able to slow down the game, and we were able to do that at times. But to give up those two big plays, especially I think one of them was on a third-and-long and then we had the offsides where we stopped them on the fourth-and-1, those were monster plays. When you play really good football teams like we've played here the last several weeks, those are the margins, right? That's the difference. Last year we made a few more of those it feels like than we have this year. We just had a few too many key breakdowns that have made a lot of these games close and have been one play here or there. That's obviously the gap that we've got to make up, and that's kind of been the story of the second half of the season for us."
