Just as USC coach Lincoln Riley was asked Tuesday evening about his team's collective battle with the flu, Riley started coughing.

"That was like perfect timing. Is that a good answer?" he joked, sounding a little hoase overall. "... Yeah, it's had a little bit of an impact. It's part of it, though. Like I told the guys today, Saturday at 7:30, nobody's going to care what you had or didn't have. You got to be ready to go play the game. You've got different obstacles that come up, and you've got to go face them. We'll deal with it, adjust how we need to, but no excuses -- gotta be ready for Saturday."

Riley had revealed after USC's win over Nebraska on Saturday that a significant number of his players had been affected by the flu, including running back Woody Marks, who nonetheless reeled off a career-high 146 rushing yards on 19 carries plus 6 catches for 36 yards.

"We didn't know for certain that he was going to play, so he did a great job. We had a little flu outbreak, which was perfect timing. We're not supposed to have the flu out here, the weather's too good. So we had a number of guys that battled through it not quite feeling their best," Riley said.

After practice Tuesday, as the Trojans (5-5, 3-5 Big Ten) prepared for their rivalry game at UCLA (4-6, 3-5), Riley was asked if the flu situation had gotten even worse since the weekend.

"Umm, yeah, yeah, a little bit right now," he said. "But most of the people it's been running its course like kind of 48-72 hours, so I think we're kind of thinking today probably was the peak of it. And I think we'll get better from here."