ANN ARBOR, Michigan -- USC was a few minutes away from what would have been a momentous win in a stadium where Michigan has rarely been beaten in recent years -- just once in the last 25 games inside the Big House -- but the Wolverines struck with the game-winning touchdown in the final minute.

Kalel Mullings' followed his 63-yard run a little while later with a touchdown conversion on fourth-and-goal from the 1 to send the hosts to a 27-24 win.

Instead of remaining undefeated, perhaps vaulting into the top 10 of the national rankings and making another statement to the rest of college football, the Trojans left Michigan Stadium with a stinging defeat.

"It was two good football teams going at it. Yeah, of course, as competitors you're disappointed. We gave ourselves an opportunity to win a football game, which doesn't happen a whole lot here. So I thought we put ourselves in position, but you've got to finish it, you've got to make some of those plays in the end," coach Lincoln Riley said. "Disappointed we didn't make it, disappointed but certainly not defeated. Excited to get back and have our first one at home."

Watch the full postgame press conference with Riley, quarterback Miller Moss and linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold here and scroll down for a transcript of all the postgame comments.

Opening comments ...

"It was a heck of a college football game. We came up one play short. Really proud of the fight of our guys. We fought our tails off. Didn't play particularly good in the first half, struggled to get much going offensively. Defensively, we had a couple of just big plays where we came out of gap, and that was really kind of the story of the first half. But the guys rallied, we did some really, really good things in the second half as a football team. Had a couple opportunities to close the door and finished one play short. It was a real battle out there, tremendous atmosphere, two good teams going at it.

"We're obviously very disappointed, but know the season, there's a lot left in it, long ways to go and I like the team I got in that locker room. There's a bunch of fighters in that room, a bunch of guys that are going to get better quickly, and we look forward to getting back and getting into our prep for Wisconsin."

How would you describe the way you feel knowing this was the first Big Ten game?

"Yeah, it was two good football teams going at it. Yeah, of course, as competitors you're disappointed. We gave ourselves an opportunity to win a football game, which doesn't happen a whole lot here. So I thought we put ourselves in position, but you've got to finish it, you've got to make some of those plays in the end. Disappointed we didn't make it, disappointed but certainly not defeated. Excited to get back and have our first one at home."

From your initial look, what does the offensive line need to do better?

"Well, it was a good opponent. You know, and obviously when you play in an atmosphere like that there's obvious challenges. They got some momentum early defensively. I thought we made a couple of lineup changes there and I thought we handled it there pretty well for a while. We got to where we were moving pretty good. It's a good group. Listen, we made some mistakes. Some of our young guys came in there and made a few mistakes -- we just got beat one-on-one a couple times against some pretty good players. That's going to happen. But it was a good battle in there. I thought we hung in there and fought, but we definitely have to get better."