10/26/2023 football Edit

Lincoln Riley shares details on dealing with pneumonia, missing practices

Ryan Young • TrojanSports

Publisher

USC coach Lincoln Riley publicly addressed his bout with pneumonia for the first time Thursday after missing two Trojans practices at the start of the week before returning to the field Wednesday.

Riley revealed that the symptoms actually started Tuesday of last week but he wasn't willing to take any recommendations for rest ahead of USC's game with Utah.

"Kind of pushed through, had a little bit of adrenaline from the game, and then Sunday didn't go too well. I thought I would be a little bit better by that point and wasn't, and so, yeah, appreciated all the people here, got me seen and taken care of. That's the first practices I missed in 20 years of coaching, which was not very much fun -- pretty excruciating to not be there with the guys and the staff," Riley said. "I was able to interact some with the staff on Monday from home, kind of limited that day. I was able to do a little bit more Tuesday from home again with them, but yeah, coach [Dennis] Simmons took over the head-coaching aspects and offensively guys kind of pulled together and took on an equal share and guys, staff, everybody did a great job of business as normal.

"It was great to get back out there yesterday. I missed being on the field with the guys. Yeah, I'm definitely a lot better than I was, but it's kind of a slow process working your way back. I've never had something like this before, so I'm kind of learning a little bit as I go. But it was good to get the days. As much as I didn't want to do it, my body needed them, the doctors and especially [my wife] Caitlin really didn't give me a choice, which was good. So, I'm better. Glad we're not playing today, glad I've got still a little bit more time, but much better."

Simmons, USC's wide receivers coach/assistant head coach who has history with Riley dating back to his start at Texas Tech, took the lead on any head coach responsibilities the first part of the week while offensive analyst Kliff Kingsbury took on a larger role with the offense those days.

No. 24-ranked USC (6-2, 4-1 Pac-12) travels to play Cal (3-4, 1-3) on Saturday in Berkeley, looking to bounce back from two straight losses while still remaining alive in the Pac-12 championship race.

Riley said he didn't know quite how long it would take for him to fully recover from the pneumonia, but he reiterated he's trending the right direction.

"Like I said, kind of learning about it, I've never had it before. Right now, just kind of energy level probably varies a little bit right now. I can't really yell, which maybe the players like that, so yeah, communication is a little iffy," he said. "I'm feeling a lot better. I'm a lot better today than I was yesterday and finally, it just felt for like 7-8 days there I really didn't make much progress at all and in fact kind of started going the other direction, so it feels good to finally make some progress.

"So yeah, if I'm limited in any way, we'll have plans in place and ready, but definitely going to do my best to be ready to do my part for the team come Saturday."

While he acknowledged that coaching through last week took a significant toll on him, Riley said he probably wouldn't do it differently if faced with the same decision again.

"I feel if I had it to do over again, competitively I'm stubborn, I'd probably do the same thing, which [I'm] not proud of it. But last week kind of felt like I was in one of those positions where it's like, do you take away from the prep or do you what you probably should do for your body? I chose A and paid for it, obviously early this week. But it's hard not to, man. I'm very invested in this team and this program and want to win badly and want to do everything I can do to help these players and coaches," Riley said.

"Obviously, it's been at the forefront of our minds with everything with Dave [Nichol] -- not that this is anywhere near that serious, obviously it's not -- but you get in that conflict sometimes. Like I said, the first time in 20 years that I've missed practices, and there's a lot of other coaches that have gone much longer than that probably never missing a day. It's a tough position, man, because like you say, we are competitive and want to win, do our best, but you know, I'm thankful I've got some people here that looked out for me and appreciative of that. And [I'm] feeling better."

Riley referenced Dave Nichol, his longtime friend who died last year from cancer several months after Riley hired him to serve as USC's inside receivers coach. In response, Riley launched an annual preventative screening health check for his coaches in August.

Riley was also asked if there was maybe any positive to be had from being forced to take a different perspective on game planning this week while conferring with his staff from afar.

"I think it was obviously not how you plan it, but maybe a good little quick mental reset, a little bit. Probably good for the staff, too, to have to rally and make some of those adjustments and the team to do that as well. I thought they all did it at a high level," he said. "To be able to sit back and watch practice not being there, barking out orders or having a ton of responsibility, it was good to kind of see the response of the team, to have some time to look into what we’ve been doing, what’s worked, what hasn’t worked. Just kind of a quick reset for me. I do think there were some positives. ...

"Like I said, you miss that time when you’re not there with the guys. You appreciate getting back and being able to be back out there, and just go back to work and try to dig our way out of this together. That’s one of the most fun things in sports. Anything team-wise, when you have had some adversity, can you really pull together and fight your way through it. I feel like our response as a program has been that the last several days, as coaches and players. Excited to go put that on display this weekend."