USC coach Lincoln Riley held his final media session before the season opener, joining reporters over Zoom on Thursday morning.
He talked about the situation at linebacker with Shane Lee and Ralen Goforth listed as an either-or on the depth, what has made the decision at left tackle so tough, how Denis Lynch won the kicking job, his outlook for the running back distribution, a lot of talk about defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and how the Trojans have approached redzone work this preseason.
Read the entire transcript of his comments below:
Where do you see things with Shane Lee and Ralen Goforth?
"We’re going to start Shane and Eric. Ralen is a pretty clear third guy going into the game. We’ll certainly play Ralen. Ralen has done a nice job for us throughout. One of the goals was figuring out who that top group is, and we feel like those three, at least through camp, have separated themselves through camp and earned the opportunity to play in this game. Still excited to see Sivi and Raesjon, those are two guys we thought did some really nice things throughout camp and are kind of right there knocking on the door ready to play significant reps as well. We’re going to evaluate production. At the end of the day, you have to go produce. We’ve said it from Day 1. We’re not going to spend a lot of time on what guys did before. It’s going to be based on production. That depth chart is based on production all camp, and as the season goes, there will be movement at all positions. We know that. But we do feel like we have three starting _____ (interrupted by someone who didn't have their Zoom on mute and started having a personal conversation for all of us to hear).
"Gotta love Zoom" -- Riley
What is it about Grinch's tone that jives with your approach?"
"I think we both believe in culture first. I think we both believe in – you know, our job is obviously to put our guys schematically in the best place we possibly can, but never let scheme or any of that outdo the mentality that you want to play with. From the very first conversation we ever had, when I hired him a few years ago, we were lockstep from there. We talk a lot. We talk a lot through the season, through the offseason. In the season, we talk some scheme, but a lot of it is our approach with the guys and how we can get them mentally in the right spot and really try to do our best to shape the attitude that this team plays with and prepares with. He does a phenomenal job of that. He’s very consistent. He’s intense, but fair with the players. And he’s got a great way about him. He obviously has a tremendous track record of coming into new places and guys responding and guys responding in a hurry and putting out high quality defense.
