Everything Lincoln Riley said Thursday morning before USC's trip to Oregon

Two questions, what is MarShawn Lloyd's status for the week, and what is the plan with Raleek the rest of the way -- has it been the plan for a while to use him these final three games to stay within the four games played redshirt limit?

"Yeah, MarShawn’s done well this week. We’ve been pleased with him. If we don’t have any issues going forward, expect him to make the trip and hopefully be available. Yeah, I mean, obviously the four-game gives you some options, whether it’s Raleek or a couple of other guys on our roster so we’ll continue to just know that we may have a few more guys available now that had not exhausted those four games at the beginning, kind of knowing that any postseason game doesn’t factor into that so that obviously makes it a little bit easier to make those decisions for us, so yeah, Raleek, anybody else, we’ll continue to evaluate them on a week to week basis and what they can contribute and if guys have got games available and what they can contribute, then we’ll certainly be ready to use them.

When you say be available, are there still things Lloyd has to clear or show to be able to play?

"No, he’s been – it’s been positive this week but anytime you’re coming back from an injury, there’s a progression to it. It’s not like you’re throwing them out there on a Tuesday practice and they’re just straight out there in a live scrimmage, which obviously, if you get in a game, it’s a full live situation. So there’s progressions from any injury. He’s trending well. I think barring anything unforeseen, I think he’ll be available for us on Saturday."

How do you want to balance integrating offensive line transfers with HS prospects to build that unit in the future?

"You know, this group, there was certainly had a lot of turnover with brand new center. Really you’re different, with Dedich and Monheim both playing different positions this year. You have five new players – you have a new player at every position, right? So there was either change or turnover at every single position on the offensive line. And i think some of the reason it was – maybe it’s been slowed just a little bit. I think point to a couple of things: first, Gino’s injury, who was starting for us at the beginning of the year, you lose him for the entire season. I think not having Kingston available basically the entire spring and then Pregnon wasn’t even here and then he came in with an injury that had to get fixed so missed a good chunk of summer and wasn’t full go in camp. I would point to a few of those things in that some of these guys were not available. And you’re – a lot of this kind of started when the season started or even in fall camp. You would certainly like to be able to start to build that continuity earlier.

"When you’re taking a transfer, you never know exactly when they’re going to be available in the beginning. You don’t know, are they coming in with an injury. You know it, but at the same time, do you turn down somebody who you think is going to be a really good player because they’re not going to be available in spring ball or whatever the case may be. It’s not like you – these things happen so fast, you gotta make those decisions pretty quickly. So yeah, I think a combination of all that has been maybe a reason why it took this group a little longer to jell. And like I said, you can’t replace last year, even though it was a different system, those guys had played a lot of ball together and you could tell. Yeah, I think like all positions, as time goes on, we want to get more and more reliant on bringing in talent, whether it’s high school players, whether it’s a transfer early on in their career where you can develop and have a little less turnover. You never want to go into a year on an offensive line where all five guys are playing five different positions. That's not – they’re five completely new faces at each position, but, yeah, I think it is starting to come together. We’ve ran the ball well here the last few weeks, done some really good things, been excited about the progress and feels like the group is starting to jell and obviously that’s going to be important here for the last couple."

What emphasis is being placed on ball security with Caleb Williams after a some costly fumbles the last couple weeks?

“That’s gotta be better, especially the one against Washington, just because there was a potential opportunity to throw the ball away, but certainly, worst case scenario there, you just get sacked. You know, we’re probably gonna be able to run the clock out, and that being the last possession of half. The one against Cal, you certainly want him to hang on to, but he was getting ready to throw the ball and sometimes they just catch you right at the inopportune time. But yeah, the one against Washington can’t happen. The ball security’s gotta be better. We get pressure back there, we certainly gotta be able to hang onto it, and that’ll, you know, it’s super important. We’ve done a good job of hanging onto ‘em last year, in the middle part or early part of this year. We’ve had a few too many on the ground the last few weeks.”

We didn't ask Monday, but why were Shaun Nua and Brian Odom the right choices for interim DC and why go with two?

“Yeah, just felt like, you gotta look at each situation in its entirety. And, you know, where are we at right now, what do we need specifically to play as good as we possibly can here in this closing stretch of the season. And, yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of good experience in that room, lot of guys I think, and you could’ve went with different individual guys or different combination. And just felt like, for what we needed in terms of unifying the group, bringing the guys together, really let this being a point where we can really rally and close the season strong, just felt like they were the best fit. I mean, not at the expense of anyone else, but just felt like the combination of their experience, their ability to work together, their ability to motivate the guys, to get the guys ready to play, to come up with a great plan, make personnel decisions, just all the things that the coordinator’s going to have a big hand in, I felt like that was the right way to go. And, yeah, specifically for both, I think that’s also a reaction on my part to the situation, and knowing that we have a short window here. It’s not like you got a bye week, or you got a bunch of time for any potential changes to happen. And it is a lot just to put on one single person’s plate. And certainly, everybody on the defensive staff and the entire staff has been asked to step up in a situation like this, but, with those two guys being able to divide, or share some of the responsibilities on this type of timeline with what we have in front of us, all that together, certainly was the right decision.”