USC, now up to No. 13 in the national rankings, has a quick turnaround after beating LSU on Sunday night and now preparing for a Saturday home game against Utah State.
Speaking after practice Tuesday, coach Lincoln Riley talked about the logistics of operating on a short week, his takeaways from watching the film of the game, the experience coaching with defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn on the sideline, wide receiver Kyron Hudson's progression and persistence, the Miller Moss TMZ report and more.
“We’re a pretty honest group with our guys. So you know, the film doesn’t lie. The good was good, we owned it, but there was a lot that has to get better at. And we do not hesitate to show the guys that, to show them where they have to get better, to lay out the plan to do it. We don’t have any problem calling ourselves out as coaches," Riley said. "I had a couple just, God-awful decisions during the game, and I told the team that. So I mean, like, we’re all in it together. There’s nobody in this program that’s above being called out. And that’s no coach, no player, nobody. We’re all accountable to it. So we gotta all get better, and that’s been made pretty clear this week.”
Watch the full interview here and scroll down for a complete transcript of his comments.
What did the film from the game reveal?
“Oh, I mean – I think the things that we thought were good were good. We did some really good things defensively, in the run game. We had a few too many mistakes in the throw game that have got to get a lot better. Offensively, we made a lot of explosive plays, made some big-time plays, but had a lot of mental errors and things that are going to have to get cleaned up. Special teams, was a pretty solid night. Our kickoff team did a really nice job, punt-return, when you’re getting the opportunity, we ended up with some short-field in the punt-return game. Punt team was awesome. Awesome, that was a massive difference in the game. And yeah, we hit all the balls on the kickoff good, and hit all the field goals good except the one that we missed. So, yeah, it was a pretty good game special-teams wise. So, yeah, I mean, a lot of good, a lot that’s like this. Man, everybody thinks, you win a game like that, ah, everything was perfect, it was all great. And it’s not, it’s far from it. There’s just so much to get better at, and it’s going to be a moving target as the year goes on. And this team isn’t going to be defined by one game, it’s going to be defined by our progress and our ability to stick with it and continue to get better.”
How do you move on from an emotional win like that?
“We’re pretty, uh, we’re a pretty honest group with our guys. So you know, the film doesn’t lie. The good was good, we owned it, but there was a lot that, has to get better at. And we do not hesitate to show the guys that, to show them where they have to get better, to lay out the plan to do it. We don’t have any problem calling ourselves out as coaches. I had a couple just, God-awful decisions during the game, and I told the team that. So I mean, like, we’re all in it together. There’s nobody in this program that’s above being called out. And that’s no coach, no player, nobody. We’re all accountable to it. So we gotta all get better, and that’s been made pretty clear this week.”
What’d you make of the revamped OL?
“Oh, we did a decent job. I mean, we – I thought Jonah did a pretty good job handling it, managing us, that was with a talented opponent, first game, all the noise in the stadium. I mean, all of that, there’s some obvious challenges there. And I thought he did a pretty nice job, he played pretty well. You know, our young guys, Elijah and Alani, had some, just, awesome plays, and they had some plays that they’re going to have to get better at. I mean, they look like talented young guys that are going to be really good players that had some good plays and got beat on some plays and are going to have to improve. You know, we thought Emmanuel did some really nice things. We thought Murph did some really nice things. So, yeah, it’s got the makings of a really good group. It was a challenging game against a talented group on the other side. We held our own, but we made a few too many mistakes that are going to have get corrected.”
