As No.-ranked USC prepares for its first ranked opponent and clearly its biggest test of the season to date as it visits No. 21 Notre Dame this weekend, Trojans coach Lincoln Riley provided some key injury updates after practice Tuesday, talked a little about the Fighting Irish, a lot about misperceptions about Alex Grinch's defense and other topics.
On the injury front, Riley said "we do expect to have [cornerback] Domani [Jackson] back" while noting that fellow starting corner Christian Roland-Wallace was "not a full participant in today's practice, but we're hopeful to have him available this weekend."
As for freshman receiver/return specialist Zachariah Banch, who has missed the last two games with an unspecified injury, Riley said a decision hasn't been made for this week.
"Getting better, not a full participant yet, so we'll see how it evolves throughout the week, but he's definitely improved," Riley said. "I think we'll get him back sooner rather than later. We don't think it's long-term, but we've also got to be smart. We've got a long stretch of football ahead of us, so we're trying to obviously, excited to get him back when the time is but we've got to be smart when that time is."
Scroll down for the full video of Riley's post-practice comments as well as a full transcript.
Complete Lincoln Riley transcript:
What is Zachariah Branch's status and how much of a missing element has he been on both offense and special teams?
"Yeah, we've missed him, sure. He's a dynamic player, obviously like you said, special teams-wise and offensively. Getting better, not a full participant yet, so we'll see how it evolves throughout the week, but he's definitely improved. I think we'll get him back sooner rather than later. We don't think it's long-term, but we've also got to be smart. We've got a long stretch of football ahead of us, so we're trying to obviously, excited to get him back when the time is but we've got to be smart when that time is."
Domani Jackson was out last week, what do you see with the cornerbacks, will Jacobe Covington get more time?
"Yeah, we'll see, we'll see. We've probably more than any position group up to this point, we've just had so many guys in and out of the lineup and it has been a challenge to build some of the consistency. Jacobe did some nice things for us the other day, which was good to see. We do expect to have Domani back, which is a good thing, certainly from a talent and depth standpoint. Not having him last week certainly showed up, especially there at the end of the game when we had a couple of guys that weren't available and we got pretty thin pretty quick. But proud how some of those guys stepped up. Prophet was a big part of the game-winning tackle there at the end, as he forced the toss play back inside. Obviously, Jacobe had some really, really nice plays in the game that was good to see. Yeah, we want to build the continuity, but they've got to be available to do it too. So having Domani back will certainly help this week, and hopefully these other guys can continue to progress."
What measures do you take to ensure you have enough able and live bodies at that spot?
"We've had get a little creative at times. For a while there, we didn't have C-Ro, we didn't have Jacobe there for a little while, so we did get a little bit thin. But fortunately we've got a handful of guys in the secondary I think can step up. We've got a few guys at safety that could kick over there and do that pretty quickly, and I think we're probably a little more well-equipped to handle it being Year 2 of this system for a lot of these guys than Year 1. So there's some moving pieces, there's things we've worked behind the scenes, things we worked through walkthroughs for fall camp and all that just in the contingency that this did happen."
What's Christian Roland-Wallace's status?
"Not a full participant in today's practice, but we're hopeful to have him available this weekend."
When determining playing time, how do you balance what you see in practice vs. game action?
"It's a great question. It's also a, there's a lot to it. Certainly, you've got to perform in games at the end of the day. The practice field I think certainly gives you a start and that's where we get started, but if you're doing great on the practice field and not carrying over those great things to the game field it's kind of, there's not a whole lot of point to it. I think you certainly are going to evaluate games more than practice, but practice is certainly a huge part of that and it's a lot of times how you get those game reps to get a chance to prove it. Yeah, I think there's levels to it certainly, but you've got to be able to go perform on Saturdays. That's what this job is about."
What was your assessment of the O-line on Saturday?
"Improved, improved. I thought we were much improved in the run game. We did a much better job in the run game than we did the previous week at Colorado, so was proud of that. We got beat a couple times in pass pro that we haven't that was disappointing, so got to be a little bit better, little tidier in pass pro, but yeah, there was several plays in the game where the O-line was pretty good and the skill wasn't very good behind them or around them. I was very encouraged by what we did in the run game. We've got to pass pro a little bit better."
Shane played some key snaps -- what have you told him about his role the rest of the way as a team captain and veteran?
"He's just somebody we have a lot of trust in. I mean, you just do. The guy's so consistent. He's healthy. He's probably the healthiest right now that he's been in his entire career for us, and that's been great. Last year he was just constantly battling through things. It's good to have him healthy, he's experienced, he's confident. He's just one of those guys you feel like when you throw him in there you know he's going to get the job done, and he did. He came through in some clutch situations. He's done a good job helping to bring some of the other younger linebackers along, he's been a great captain for us. He's been the epitome of what it means to be a Trojan."
How does this Notre Dame team compare to last year’s?
“I don’t like comparisons. I understand the question. This is a good football team, though. And this is a very good defense, and it feels like they’ve been energized a little bit by the quarterback coming in that’s obviously played pretty well for ‘em the entire year, and has a ton of experience. And a good football team, a very complete football team, playing at a very high level defensively. They return a lot of guys, it’ll be one of the older defensive groups we play all year. And then, obviously, an extremely experienced offense at the quarterback position.”
Caleb was outspoken after the game, Bryson the week before, are there things with defense’s improvement people aren’t seeing?
“Oh, there’s – how long do you got? I mean, again, you get to that point, and in games like that, somebody’s got to make the play to turn that around. And the reality is, in regulation, look, here’s the deal. We kick that field goal and win it in regulation, we’re all talking about how the defense gave up only 11 points the rest of the day, and they started the entire run that got us back on the same page. But it’s one field goal that we don’t make that the defense has no control over. And then all everybody wants to do is look at the final score, it’s like, oh, well this and that. And it just doesn’t tell the entire story. And so Caleb was exactly right, it’s what we’ve been trying to say. We’re not hiding from the areas that we’ve got to continue to make improvement, and there certainly are some. But this is a much-improved unit. There is no question about it. I mean, this is a unit that, I think, when you talk about the top-end potential, has a chance to really grow and get better fast given some of the youth, some of the new people, some of the quality depth that we have, some of the injuries that we’ve had that have prevented guys from being able to continually get snaps, but there are a lot of good things happening on this defense, man. You don’t sit there and do what we’re doing in TFLs, do what we’re doing in sacks, like, there’s so many great things.
"But here’s the deal. Everybody in the media had their mind made up. Now, I won’t generalize. A lot of people in the media had their mind made up that the first second there was any adversity this year, it was like, ‘Oh my God, they should have done this, and they should have made this change,’ and blah blah blah. And it’s not true. Like, listen – you’re going to go through the whole year, you’re going to have a tough game. You’re going to have a tough quarter. Do you respond? Do you show continued growth? And that’s going to be continued to written throughout the entire year, but there’s a lot of great things happening here, and we’ll own the things that need to get better but people need to make sure they’re seeing the other side of it as well. And that’s what we’ve been trying to say for a long time, and I think both myself and Caleb and some other players were venting a little bit of frustration with that, to be completely honest. So, I like the job we’re doing there. I think we’re set up to play really well the second half of the season. And I can promise you, inside these walls, there is no expectation other than to play high-level in the second half of this year.”
Evaluation of WRs, did man throw them off?
“Yeah, it wasn’t necessarily the man coverage, we made some plays but we were just inconsistent in terms of where we need to be, and we were just a little bit, a tick off. And when you do that and somebody’s expecting you to be in a certain spot and you’re not there, I mean it’s, the game is so precise, right, when you’re playing it at a high level. And our precision was not very good. So I think that was the biggest disappointment leaving it, and a lot of it were very base, day one things for us. So, we certainly got to get our precision back, and play at a high level. We made some big plays, certainly, when we needed it, but we absolutely expect more.”
