USC coach Lincoln Riley talked to reporters for the final time before the No. 7-ranked Trojans' game Saturday at Fresno State, joining media on his weekly Thursday morning Zoom call.
Riley talked about the process of maximizing wide receiver Jordan Addison's potential, offensive lineman Justin Dedich's leadership, where things stand with five-star freshman cornerback Domani Jackson, handling success and more.
Read the full transcript of his comments here:
On the screen pass TD to Jordan Addison last week, how many times did you have to rep that to get the timing right with all the blocks involved?
"Yeah, not an easy play to run. That's something that's really been like a standard play for us, something that we liked going into that game. I give our linemen really a lot of credit. There was a lot of moving parts there, and not only to execute it against a good defense but to get some of those blocks we did in the open field was really good. And then Jordan did a good job of trusting it. You've got to trust that those big guys are going to clear the way and you can't hesitate -- that's one of the keys to those screens from the receiver position is you've got to have a guy that's going to hit it, not hesitate. In some ways it almost becomes like a punt return or kick return kind of in those moments, and he trust it -- especially Neilon and Bobby Haskins had big blocks on it."
A month ago you said you were still getting used to Jordan Addison and his skill set, what have you learned about his capabilities this last month?
"I think like all our players we're just getting a feel for skill set, the way he likes to run routes, what he's good at, certainly trying to play to his strengths and he does have a lot of strengths as a player, so it's not like it's crazy difficult, but there is, to be in rhythm, you have to have a really unique understanding of a guy and the quarterback and everybody else has to too. So I think we've been able to learn just how he sets up routes, where he's best, just how we communicate with him in terms of -- you've got a guy that's been in a different offense and maybe they called this that, and people get into like, well, they called this play this and we call this play that. That's the easier part, right, you can reprogram people quick on that. The bigger thing is maybe you set a guy up on the outside and cross him up, but that term that was used to describe that or coach that was maybe different at a previous place so you're really learning, in a lot of ways when you make a transfer and you go into a new place, not only are you learning new play calls, like you're learning an entire new verbiage.
"And with a guy like him who wasn't here for spring ball, you got to make that happen sooner rather than later. I think we're on the same page more and he's played well for us the first couple of weeks."
