With it being Thanksgiving week, USC coach Lincoln Riley will only meet with reporters once leading up to the game with Notre Dame on Saturday.
That was Tuesday morning after practice, where he talked about the challenge the Fighting Irish defense presents, Kyle Ford's emergence, Mario Williams' limited return last week, his confidence in kicker Denis Lynch, the gantlet ahead and whether this team is playing its best football right now.
Watch the full interview here or scroll down for our complete transcript of his comments:
Has Kyle Ford done anything in games that has surprised compared to what you saw from him in the spring or when healthy prior to the season?
"He's in a lot better shape than he was in spring, for sure. He did a lot of really good things in spring. It wasn't a surprise that he was going to make an impact. I honestly believe the biggest thing that held Kyle back early in the year is he got injured and missed the majority of camp and we didn't even know if we were going to have him available for the first couple games. It wasn't just a two or three day deal, he missed weeks. When you miss that much time, the guys you're competing with get better, you miss the time on the field, you lose a little bit of that sharpness, you lose a little bit of conditioning and you don't just come back like Day 1. Like, I think his first day he came back to practice was maybe like Tuesday of the Rice week. We were able to play him a little bit in that game because we got up, but it's been a climb back. And listen, we've got other good players in there too. He's gotten work and he's done well here, but he's had to earn those reps. And he has. I give him credit, he's stuck with it and is doing some really good things, playing at a really solid level. I think Caleb and all us have a lot of trust in him right now."
Denis Lynch had the two misses Saturday, what's your confidence level in him going forward?
"Very high. The holder moved his foot on the first one, he kicked the holder's foot -- I've never seen a kicker who can make a field goal and hit the holder's foot. If he could do that, he'd be really good. Yeah, just barely, just didn't hit a great ball on the second one. Those happen. But then yeah, he comes back and drills a 49-yarder into the wind that ended up being the differentiating points in the game. Listen, these decisions that we make in a game, there's no 100 percent decisions, right? You can go coach it all you want, your players can do everything perfect throughout the week. Not everything is going to work out. You prep the best you can, the players prep the best you can, you get into the games, you let it rip. If there's a continuing problem, of course you're going to address it or make adjustments, but no, we've got a lot of confidence in Denis and I think Denis showed his confidence by going back and nailing that one because that was a big kick and a big momentum kick in that game."
