Everything Lincoln Riley said after USC's win over Notre Dame

"Obviously, great win. It's fun to see the Coli like that. Sitting up there at that press conference close to 12 months ago and kind of just imagining that, and these guys have brought it to life. I don't know how long it's been since it was like that -- I haven't been here before -- but man, it was electric in there. That's kind of what I remember watching as a young kid. To see the Coli like that, to see our team playing the way we did, all three sides, we played really well all three sides of the ball.

"Defensively, I honestly kind of got sick and tired of hearing how well we were just going to get pounded in the run game. That didn't happen. I'm really proud of the way we stopped the run, tackled, caused turnovers, made big plays -- we played really well defensively. Offensively, we made enough plays certainly to win it. We had some tough, gritty plays against a very good defense, and then obviously special teams some huge plays on the night.

"I'm proud of the guys. I'm proud of the way we finished, separating from a really good football team that the last several weeks had been on a really good run, had a lot of momentum coming in here. So I told the guys in the locker room this has been a tremendous run, but there's obviously a lot more left out there for us. So we're excited about this, as we should be, but we've got a quick week. We're playing a conference championship game here in six days. So we've got to enjoy it but put it to bed here quickly and get ready to head to Vegas."

The defense has faced criticism this season -- what's the biggest thing that stuck out to you about the defense?

"I mean, it's football. You're going to go through a whole season. I mean, there's been periods where you can criticize any part of our team, but there's also been moments of greatness from all parts. The reality is we're not sitting here 11-1 without our defense -- we wouldn't be here. Everybody just kind of remembers the previous week or what happened. There's been a lot go into this game, a lot go into this season, and our defense has made some big-time plays in big-time moments -- really has for the majority of the year. I mean, we wouldn't be sitting here at all without them. Phenomenal job tonight. Really physical at the line of scrimmage. We did a good job not letting them get out very often at all in the run game, we got pressure on the quarterback, made some competitive plays in the throw game, obviously the pick. Just played a pretty complete football game defensively. We've talked to our guys a lot about the gap of where we're at versus what we're capable of, and we took some steps to close that gap tonight."