USC's new football practice field was officially cleared for use on Wednesday, just in time for the Trojans' first practice of fall camp on Friday morning.

The second 100-yard field -- with painted end zones -- parallels what's left of the existing practice space and utilizes space where the baseball stadium used to stand. The Trojans used to have a shorter second field that ran perpendicular. The new field is part of the ongoing project that will ultimately include a new three-story football performance center dedicated to team operations as well as a rooftop hospitality deck and player lounge.

Riley said that is expected to be complete in about a year and a half.

"We will have the old turf for the duration of fall camp and then they will rip that up and start building the best college football facility in the country, which we're pretty excited to see and excited for you all to get to see it," Riley said Wednesday. "Because once you stand out there now you really get a scope of how massive of a project this is, how incredible this building is going to be, so really, really excited about that. That construction will be ongoing during the season but won't affect our preparation. Our team's done a tremendous job of planning.

"It's been a massive sacrifice for the university, for some of our other sports teams. Obviously, baseball's been a tremendous partner, coach Stank (Andy Stankiewicz), their group have been a tremendous partner in this, and obviously excited that they're going to end up with a great new stadium out of this as well. It's a big-time step for our program, and to see the progress and be able to have some of it functional now is a great feeling. ... Just another sign of great progress."

"Credit to a lot of our people here in administration that have worked behind the scenes to really push to get this thing done and have it ready for us to open fall camp," Riley said. "It's beautiful. It's amazing how it's transformed that space. I know our team's really excited to get out there, so that should be fully operational starting today and certainly when we open camp on Friday."