Lincoln Riley provides clarity on recovery timeline for three key players

Three key Trojans are missing from spring practice as they continue to recover from their respective season-ending injuries from the fall, and head coach Lincoln Riley provided clarity on their expected timelines for returning to action.

Riley said safety Zion Branch (knee) and offensive guard Gino Quinones (torn ACL) are both increasing their activity levels behind the scenes and are expected to be full-go for the start of fall camp in August, Riley said Thursday. Branch and Quinones could both be key rotation pieces and push for starting roles when healthy.

Meanwhile, starting tight end Lake McRee (knee) is a little further behind after injuring his knee during bowl practices in December and requiring surgery. But he too could be active in time for fall camp, optimistically, Riley said.

"Yeah, expect them all to be full-go or close to full-go for fall camp," Riley said. "Lake will probably be, just because his injury was later than the others, he'll probably be the latest one, but he's way ahead so he's certainly got a shot to be a participant and hopefully a full participant for fall camp. The other two certainly will be. So all three of those guys, really, really hard workers. Like, guys that attack the process. You don't worry about their mentality or their aggressiveness in terms of their rehab. They're all ahead."