During his final media availability before No. 11-ranked USC's trip to Minnesota, coach Lincoln Riley declined to provide an update on the status of injured linebacker Eric Gentry and safety Akili Arnold, after ruling both questionable earlier in the week.

"Yeah, ongoing with these guys. Now that we put out an injury report there before the game, I’m probably just going to stick to that at this point," he said.

Riley did talk plenty on other topics, though, from how redshirt freshman left tackle Elijah Paige is responding to his struggles the last two weeks, the performance of the edge rushers despite much in the way of sacks, the young tight ends, the matchup with Minnesota and much more.

Watch his full Zoom interview with media here and scroll down for a complete transcript of his comments.

What’s your philosophy on keeping a back/TE in to block?

“Yeah, I mean, there’s give and take with it. I think generally, what people are trying to evaluate there is – if you’re using guys to help in protection, then you’re obviously getting less guys out in routes, and theoretically, potentially making those easier to cover and making the quarterback have to hang on to the ball longer. So, sometimes it’s beneficial – sometimes, it can actually cause you to have to protect even longer, because when you’re chipping you’re only helping one person. So there’s give-and-take, I think every offensive coach goes through when you wanna help and when you don’t, and you know, everybody’s got different philosophies on right time or right route combinations, or matchups or whatever it is to get that done. So I think just, that’s a thing we try to evaluate each week.”

What’s your evaluation on lack of sack production from edges, and can Kam Fountain contribute?

“I think Kam definitely can contribute this year. I would not put that out of the question whatsoever. He’s progressing, he’s getting a lot of good reps both with our defense and with our scout-team right now, he’s getting better fast. Yeah, I mean, I think – sure, would you look at it and love to see some more production there? Yeah, absolutely, and we’ve had some opportunities. But the other thing is, are you affecting the quarterback? And if you look at, certainly, how well we’ve played on third downs and look at us in general, we have been able to affect teams. And sacks are great, and obviously we want more of ‘em, but at the same time you’ve got to be affecting the quarterback. And I do think, in large part, we are doing that. But, certainly, continuing to improve in our base four-man rushes, getting home more, hitting the quarterback more, moving him off his spots, getting sacks, is something that we’ve got to continue to improve on. It’s been a big emphasis point for us.”

There's been plenty of talk about Big Ten adjustments, but has there also been adjustments to way games are officiated?

“Yes,” laughs. “Yes, very much so. They, at least up to this point, what we’ve seen, it’s been – for the most part, it’s been, this league lets you play a little bit more. There’s less ticky-tack fouls called. And then, I would say up to this point, I’ve really appreciated, even the ones that have been missed – which we’ve had a handful in these last couple of weeks, which, that’s gonna happen – I’ve appreciated the conference and the officiating coordinator, Bill, everybody has been very up-front about it and open. And, yeah, so, we’ve had great dialogue with them. It has been different, but I actually – I prefer how we’ve done it.” *pause*. “Or how we’re currently doing it in our league.

“I don’t think I got fined there. We’ll see.”

You were trending towards using more two-TE formations when Lake McRee healthy, didn’t use as much against Wisconsin, how critical is it for offense that Walker grows up quick and how has he handled it?

“Yeah, we have been impressed, even in this early game action. Kinda got his feet wet a little bit against Utah State, came in and played some more significant reps, the last couple of weeks, obviously, once Lake went down. And I think he would have been trending towards playing some more reps regardless of Lake’s injury. Yeah, I mean, he’s a guy that, he’s got the skillset to do it all. To be able to block, to be able to certainly be a factor in the receiving game. And he just, you could tell when he got here he’d been gone from the game for a long time, but he’s like, he’s getting better fast. He’s taking steps, every week he’s been better. But certainly, surely, we do need him, need him and the other tight ends to continue to step up to play the way we’re going to need to play. But I’ve been very encouraged with his process. And it seems like every time he gets on the field, the guy’s just a little bit better. So, we’re just gonna, we’re just gonna keep pushing him. He continues to improve, he’ll continue to have a bigger and bigger role in this offense.”