After USC's second spring practice Thursday, coach Lincoln Riley talked more in-depth about the Trojans' running back competition and new additions there, what tall transfer receiver Prince Strachan adds to the offense, why USC is doing away with the spring game and more.

Watch the full interview here and scroll down for a complete transcript of Riley's comments.

How was Day 2?

"Day 2 was good. Guys did a nice job. These days they're raring to go. Obviously, we've got some limitations contact-wise. We get into pads on Saturday, but our guys have handled it well, it's been very good work. I've been excited to see the new guys, and then some older guys that have progressed. So I've been proud of the effort, proud of the way the staff has handled it. I think the guys came in in shape, so credit to strength, nutrition, medical -- people on our team came into spring very clearly ready to practice. Very solid start to this point."

Do you feel your ahead of last spring just from a size standpoint?

"I mean, I think so. It's a couple years in offensively now, it's the second year now defensively, so less of that feels new. That's maybe one of the best ways to describe it. On the hoof, just looking at our guys, right, we look better at this point probably than other teams have. That's got to translate to good football, but I believe it will, so I think we're progressing in all ways."

How do you assess the running backs?

"Another fun group this spring of kind of how that's going to play out. We were excited about the way that Bryan and AP played in the bowl game -- I thought they both did some really good things when they kind of got their moment to step up, and they both had an impact for us on special teams throughout the year and the snaps they got offensively they did a good job. So you feel like you had two returners there that, all right, we know they can play, we know they're both physical backs, they know our system very well, really worked hard to try to get them in the best shape of their lives and their bodies are really progressing.

"Obviously, you add in the two older guys right now with Eli and Waymo -- those are different skill sets, different body types. Waymo's really compact, really moves effortlessly, and then obviously had a ton of production at Hutch. Eli's explosive -- you just see his explosion. He kind of jumps off the tape already, which is what we saw on tape. I mean, he averaged big-time yards per carry, I think really brings that real explosive aspect to the room, and excited to see [walk-on] King [Miller], excited to get Riley Wormley healthy. It's a good group. It will be fun to see how it plays out, but I think maybe as diverse a room as we've had in our years here at SC just in terms of the varying skill sets and experience levels. It's going to be a lot of fun to find out what these guys do well and see how the room shakes out."

What stands out about the young defensive linemen?

"I don't know that there's any of them that physically you would say right now there's just now way they're going to be able to help you. It's a pretty advanced group physically. That's hard to do, you come in mid-term, Jahkeem came in even earlier than that, but the other guys, you're coming in mid-term and all of a sudden you going into this type of training and then getting ready to play on the line of scrimmage at this level at a school like this. If you're not ready it's going to show up pretty quick. These guys so far have handled it well. Cash, Jahkeem, Floyd, all those guys it's been fun to watch them run around and fun to watch the strength and power that they already have in their game. Pads are on Saturday, I think I'll be able to tell you a little bit more after that, but physically I think all those guys are exactly what we thought they were if not maybe a little bit ahead of that."

Gus Cordova too when he gets here?

"100 percent, we're excited to get Gus. Gus is a really good player, obviously a really high-recruited guy. We've got a handful of guys in Gus' situation that they're not with us yet, but they're going to be up here a lot through spring, we're going to try to close the gap as much as they can so hopefully they're here ready to compete in June."

What was the rationale for getting rid of the spring game?

"Honestly, the biggest thing to me, I know all these coaches have had their differing reasons. The portal thing really didn't factor into that for us. We didn't think that -- I just don't put that much stock into that. The biggest thing for us is the spring game is for the fans and the spring game is I think a chance to get guys out in front of the stadium. The negative to the spring game is now it's broadcast all over the place, so nobody wants to do anything schematically that they're going to do, so you end up spending a day or two days just to get ready for the spring game, and then the spring game where you're going to be limited on what all you can do. To us it was like, instead of having to prep and all that an dedicate practices out of our 15 to it, we felt like we could just continue to progress and maybe not have to maybe worry about that a little bit, and we thought it would be best for our football team.

"Now, we're still going to do some things to create the experience for our fans because obviously creating that interaction is important. The atmospheres here at the Coliseum the last several years I think have elevated in a lot of ways and we believe that's going to continue to grow so we want to continue to have that interaction with our fans, but we also want to do what's best for our football team."

When do you expect to have Keeshawn Silver full-go?

"We'll see. I don't know that I have a definitive date on that. He's progressing. We knew there was going to be a little clean-up in that knee right when he got here, so hope to have him do a little bit more toward the end of spring."

How about the wide receivers and what Prince Strachan brings to the table?

"Yeah, excited to see him. He's a big dude, he can run, he's an explosive player, he's been very conscientious in terms of learning the offense, making the time, asking questions. So he has a mentality of a guy that's a little bit older, more of a professional-type mentality, which you love. So yeah, we love the skill set, we love the personality and the competitiveness, now it's just growing. He's obviously got a great opportunity. We have real talent in that room but it's not incredibly deep right now. Obviously, we've had deeper receiver rooms, so we love the talent but the guys are going to have to step up and obviously be ready to go. Prince, that's a big reason that he came here seeing that opportunity, so excited for him, excited for the rest of our room. It's a good room, and we'll get a couple other guys, a couple freshmen here in June."

How does this transfer class differ from others?

"Yeah, you know, the group last year came in and had a lot of impact and we needed it just because we were a pretty young team outside of those guys. They had a huge like leadership impact, like kind of had to right away. Up to this point with these guys, these guys just kind of come in and work. And I think some of it is the leadership around them and what is currently here has continued to get better as time has gone on, but it's kind of a just down-to-business group. They've done a good job acclimating themselves with the team, getting to know their teammates, all of that. But we don't have a lot of guys that necessarily have to be at the front of the room right now because some of that's already established. So guys have come in, they've worked, we've been very happy with every one of the guys that came in up to this point."

Going back to Waymond, you said on Trojans Live his was a unique recruitment, can you go more into that?

"He came onto our radar screen late. We had heard about him, we were starting to look at some running backs, the deal with Eli happened pretty quickly, and then we had a couple of coaches there and staff member that had reached out to us just through kind of our varying contacts in the business and said 'Make sure you really watch this guy.' These are some guys that have coached in some pretty good places and said, 'This guy is worth a second look.' So we dove in on him and the more we watched the more we liked him. And when we started talking to him it was right around the time they were going to play for the national championship and he was at a banquet to get his national player of the year award, so there was just a lot going on and we didn't know if it was really going to come together. And they came out here and loved it, and we loved the kid's personality and football smarts and his experience, so yeah, it just really worked out. Obviously great having both those guys -- we probably couldn't have dreamed that."