BERKELEY -- USC coach Lincoln Riley talked about the resolve his football team showed in coming back from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to pull out a 50-49 win on the road at Cal on Saturday.
Riley talked about the unusual halftime situation where he stayed on the field as the teams went to the locker room, imploring officials that there was still time on the clock for USC to attempt a field goal -- which was ultimately granted.
Riley underscored the positives and emphasized that his team is in second place in one of the top conferences in college football this season.
And then he was asked multiple questions about the what the outcome covered over -- another rough defensive performance (with some exceptions and big moments in the second half) as Cal piled up 527 yards and led most of the afternoon.
Riley maintained his confidence that this team -- and this defense -- are good enough to win a Pac-12 championship.
"I believe this team can win this league. Hell yeah, I do. Hell yeah, I do. I know we can," Riley said. "... We've got some work to do here, but can we do it? Damn right we can."
Watch the full postgame press conference here and scroll down for a complete transcript of Riley's comments:
Opening comments ...
"That was a wild one. Still processing a little bit, just got done with the guys. Awesome, awesome comeback. I mean, you bring them up there at the beginning of the fourth quarter, I think we were down 11 at that point and it's, you know, you've played very spotty all game and you gotta go summon it. It's not only down 11 but I think they have the ball down pretty low there too. So, obviously, that was a key point for us. With all that we've been through here the last few weeks, had to persevere through a lot, had to overcome a lot, you know, and regardless of what happened good or bad in those first three quarters, you're on the road, there's nowhere to find, you gotta go find a way to win in. And we did, and we did it even despite some mistakes there in the fourth quarter. So I'm very appreciative of their fight, guys mentally staying in it, made some tremendous game-changing plays.
"With the way that the game unfolded, it became such a high-possession game. It was a lot different than some of these ones we played in. They played fast offensively, we had a couple of big plays offensively, there were some quick turnovers or three-and-outs, so it was one of those games that you knew was going to be, you could tell pretty early that it was probably going to be high-possession, so with those typically you get kind of your wild twists and turns, and obviously this delivered on plenty of that. The guys battled, we still went through some of our lulls on both sides of the ball, we were typically able to cover the other side up, which has become I think a strength of this team right now. It kind of seems like when one side is not going on, the other finds a way to kind of keep it together and make plays and keep us in these things. Obviously, for us, you know, striving here toward the end of being able to play more complementary ball where we can get some of those surges -- we've had a few but I think that's the No. 1 thing going forward for us is we've got to play more complementary ball where we can get on those runs and have a bunch of points in a row and hold people several stops in a row. Because if you don't, and kind of like we're playing right now, you're going to be in these tight games, right? It's kind of back and forth and you're going to be in these games and it's going to swing on a couple of plays, like the last three weeks have. That's not a horrible position to be in -- we were in a position to win all of them -- but obviously we want to play better.
"So, we've obviously got to do that, but I'm really, really damn proud of the group. I'm really proud of the group. They could have folded there in the fourth quarter. The last two weeks, things haven't went our way, some within our control, some not within our control, and to step up here on the road against a team that had some, coming off a bye week and had some obvious momentum at times during the game, and go find a way to get this sucker done was huge. So yeah, excited to get back, to get to work. There's a lot to build on, there's a lot that needs to improve, and yeah, if we keep practicing like we have here the last couple of weeks then we'll continue to get better -- we will.
"I want to give a lot of credit to Cal. I thought they had a great plan, they did a good job taking advantage of the bye week -- they brought out a few new things that we had to adjust to and they had a few things that gave us trouble on both sides of the ball. So give them credit, they made some really nice plays, they did. Justin's done a really good job. We knew coming in, they had our ultimate respect because really, the Washington game for them was kind of flukey, there was some separation early in that game and they battled the rest of the way, and they've had a chance to win every single other game. Scored a bunch of points here against Oregon State, who we know in our league has done a really good job defensively. They've had some bright moments offensively -- they had a chance to beat Utah [two weeks ago], obviously probably should have beat Auburn here. They're a good football team. Justin's done a good job. We knew it would be a challenge coming in, and if we didn't play clean we knew it would be a dogfight and it certainly was.
"But obviously happy to come out with the win and excited to go back to work with this team and get better. We sit here right now I think 5-1 and firmly in second place in the most deep conference in college football, and some fun opportunities ahead that we're very much looking forward to."
