USC is a week out from its annual spring game, and perhaps as a warmup for that showcase the Trojans spent Saturday morning in the Coliseum for the first time since the win over Notre Dame in late November.

After four weeks of spring practice, Lincoln Riley and his coaching staff wanted to see the players in a true scrimmage-like setting. Per Riley, the Trojans ran 85-plus plays, including a competitive overtime period, along with significant special teams work and other drills.

As the scrimmage was closed to media, like most all of USC's practices are (with exception to stretching and individual drills twice a week), Riley was the only voice to offer feedback and perspective on how it went.

"It was a little bit different than some of our practices here as of late in that there was some pretty big momentum swings in the scrimmage," he said in a Zoom call with reporters afterward. "When you're the head coach you always look at it from two points of view. I mean, sides were able to maintain momentum longer, but on the flip side of it, you want the other side when it's not going well to be able to turn it around quicker.

"The general kind of how it went, the offense started pretty quickly, had a good first couple of drives. Defense dominated the middle part of the scrimmage. At one point I think we had six or seven straight series with no points. And then we did a full overtime at the end, which there was a lot of back and forth on. We split the teams up and it got pretty competitive there at the end and finished with a pretty epic kind of two-point attempt there at the end, which was fun. So, yeah, it was a competitive day."

Riley added that there were no injuries sustained and that the Trojans are probably the healthiest they've been all spring.

As far as individual standouts ...

"Anthony Lucas had a sack-strip and then picked up the fumble. I couldn't tell for sure if he was a part of the sack, it was close, but he picked up the fumble and scored, which was a big play," Riley said initially, later passing along word that upon further review it was linebacker Raesjon Davis who scored on that touchdown return. "Defensively, had a couple of really key fourth-down stops defensively where guys made really sure tackles. Had a couple of big plays on offense. Zach [Branch] had a couple of really nice plays, Kyron Hudson had a really nice play in the overtime period. Backs all had some productive runs, but there were also a lot of tackles for loss and guys in the backfield, too. So it was a lot of standouts with that many plays.

"Like I said, it was a day of big momentum shifts. And great for us to get in the Coliseum. It's our first time I guess since Notre Dame that we've been in here, and great first time for this football team to get a chance to come in and obviously a gorgeous day and a lot of great football this morning."