Lincoln Riley was asked about his assessment on USC's offensive line Saturday, and it would be expected that his response would be positive, encouraging, optimistic.

But Riley took it well further than that.

"I see not one reason on this planet why we cannot have a great offensive line here very, very quickly," he said.

The backbone of Riley's comment was the experience of the unit, and in that regard there's no question that the Trojans have one of the oldest, most experienced offensive lines in college football.

Left guard Andrew Vorhees (25 career starts), the standout of the group, and center Brett Neilon (29 starts) are both sixth-year seniors, projected left tackle Bobby Haskins (20 starts at Virginia) and versatile center/guard Justin Dedich (22 games played, 7 starts) are fifth-year seniors, and third-year linemen Courtland Ford and Jonah Monheim opened last season as the starting left/right tackle, respectively (but could end up in different roles this fall.)

Haskins has been out injured all spring, while Ford and Monheim have remained at their familiar tackle spots with Dedich working at first-team right guard, but it remains to be seen how things will shake out in fall camp with Haskins active.

Riley said he didn't spend a lot of time studying what the unit did last year, aside from the overlap week after he was hired leading into the Trojans' regular-season finale vs. Cal, as he was able to observe practice.

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"I saw bits and pieces, but I didn't sit there and study it. We studied a couple guys individually, and honestly we probably spent more time at practice watching those guys and trying to see their skill sets before the Cal game than honestly we did with film. I don't want to speak to last year -- I'd say this year we have a lot of capability in that room," Riley said. "We've had some really, really strong moments in practice with that room, and then we have one thing in that room that you cannot put a price tag on, and that's experience.

"At the position with a new offense and an offense that is very demanding for an offensive line to learn and to master and to do very well, that experience is crucial and we are a lot further ahead right now than what we would be if we were an inexperienced group. So there's some experience, there's some talent."

In his opening comments on his Zoom call with reporters Saturday, after USC's 12th practice of the spring, Riley was very encouraged by the progression he's seen from the team.

"It’s been a really great week. We’ve been really impressed with our guys’ approach this week as a whole, one we really targeted in terms of – we made the comment the other day in the Coliseum of just being able to attack this second half of spring and really having the maturity and awareness to understand how important it is for us as a football team," he said. "We’ve had a really good week. It’s been the best week of spring up to this point. If you’re going to be a good football team, it should be. You’ve corrected a lot of things. You’ve put a lot of work in, reps and meetings, all of that should start to show up. And it is. ....

"Our guys have certainly not slowed down at all as practice has went on, as spring has went on. In fact, it’s gotten better and better. Proud of how we’re handling it."

Asked in what way he thought it was the best week of practice, he reiterated the investment of the players physically and that it's cleaner football all around.

"We've maintained if not even increased the energy and physicality at practice and the quality of ball has just been better," he said. "There's less mistakes, there's more plays out there right now where the defense kind of does their job and the offense does their job and it comes down to the one-on-one competitive play or competitive tackle or whatever it is, and when there's good ball on both sides that's typically what it looks like. We still have plenty of mistakes, we still have plenty of work to do -- I don't want to portray that work's done, we're going to cancel the last three practices and see you in September. We've still got some work to do, but the progress is evident."

He noted that USC has had only 60 scholarship players available this spring, in part due to injuries and also due to overall roster numbers with a number of scholarship spots open following the mass exodus of transfers.

"Honestly, it’s the lowest number of scholarships I’ve ever went into spring with. I thought, well this is going to be interesting. Do we have to adapt practice because you have less numbers compared to what we’ve done in the past? We haven’t adapted one bit; in fact, we’ve probably pushed a little bit harder given the situation we’re in and what we feel like this team needs," Riley said. "So guys have gotten so many reps and have gotten better quickly. It’s really, for our guys who practiced this spring, become a huge advantage."

Riley noted that Terrell Bynum, Tahj Washington, Gary Bryant Jr., Mario Williams and Kyron Ware-Hudson have been working at both outside and inside receiver spots.

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Riley had more praise for the rush ends (the stand-up outside linebacker position).

"Eli'jah Winston has been healthy the whole way and has made some really nice strides. Been really steady. Both Romello [Height] and Korey [Foreman] provide a level of explosion there that’s pretty obvious," he said. "Romello has had a really nice spring, really complete spring – very difficult to block in 1-on-1 situations, has really learned the defense quickly. Proud of his progression. And I think Korey has done a really nice job. He missed close to the first half of spring – or wasn’t full-go. But he’s been full-go as of late, doing everything, has been disruptive. Had a couple nice sacks in our team period here today. I think he’s progressing nicely."

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The Trojans have worked on more situational periods over the last week or so, and Riley was asked who has stood out to him in those opportunities.

"Good question," he said, taking a long pause. "A few guys. I thought [tight ends] Malcolm Epps and Jude Wolfe have done some really nice things. Another set of guys I would really highlight their improvement from the beginning of spring to now -- been really impressed with those two. [Safety] Calen Bullock, he was a little limited early in spring and he's back healthy now and has strung together a couple good days in a row and made some pretty big plays situationally. [Linebackers] Shane Lee and Ralen [Goforth] both have showed up situationally quite a bit. There's several. We've got so much work the last few practices that I think a lot of guys have."