Lincoln Riley was candid after a painful one-point, last-minute loss on the road at Utah, acknowledging that he didn't agree with the totaling of the 12 penalties for 93 yards called against the Trojans in the 43-42 defeat.
"I feel two ways about it. The officiating was really poor tonight. But we still should have won the game," coach Lincoln Riley said.
He was also resolute that this is just the beginning for his team, however, and that he knows from experience what it takes to overcome a loss like this and push forward to the team's top goals -- a Pac-12 championship, College Football Playoff appearance and more.
Watch the full postgame press conference here, with Riley, Williams and defensive end Tuli Tuipulotu.
Everything Lincoln Riley said after the loss at Utah
Opening comments ...
"Obviously, a tough, tough way to take a loss. I thought our guys really battled tonight. It was a great environment. It was a really fun environment to play in. We didn't play as clean on all three sides as we wanted to, and it came down to it, they made one more play than us or we made one more mistake, however you want to look at it. But you can't question the fight and the resolve of this football team. We had to overcome a lot tonight and we got damn close to doing it. So we'll rally. I've been in this position a couple of times. I told those guys I kind of have an idea what it looks like when you can really make a run off of one of these. This team has the inner fortitude, the culture, the desire to win, the desire to overcome anything that goes your way, even things that are your of your control. We got enough of that right now to get it done. We gotta improve, we've got to get better and I can't wait to get back to work with these guys."
How do you deal with the penalties that kept a lot of drives alive?
"I feel two ways about it. The officiating was really poor tonight. But we still should have won the game. That's part of road football and that's part of football in general. You're going to have some nights where the calls don't go your way, and they certainly did not tonight, but you still find a way. I thought we continued to keep our composure and fight, and we still should have won the game. I'm not going to be the guy up here saying we lost the game because of the officiating, because we didn't. We're not going to be excuse makers -- it was just another thing we had to overcome tonight and we were close to getting it done. But just not quite enough."
