Eric Gentry, Akili Arnold injury updates: Lincoln Riley addresses latest on USC defenders

Ahead of their second road trip in the Big Ten, Lincoln Riley didn’t share too much about two of the top players on the Trojans’ defense.

Riley updated the statuses of Eric Gentry and Akili Arnold on Thursday ahead of USC’s game at Minnesota tomorrow night. As for anything official, he directed them to the injury report, a new aspect of the sport, that they’ll have for the matchup.

“Yeah, ongoing with these guys,” said Riley. “We’re going to, you know, now that we put out an injury report, you know, there before the game, I’m probably just going to stick to that here at this point.”

“I like it. I think it’s good. You know, I think as long as, you know, people are held accountable that it’s accurate, which, you know, that’s obviously with injury reports, the main thing. I understand why they do it, especially in this age with gambling being such a, you know, hot-button issue,” Riley said. “It’s good. I think it was probably a long-time coming. You know, it’s not going anywhere. It’s here to stay.”

Gentry reportedly had an issue with his neck and was carted to the locker room towards the end of last week’s win over Wisconsin. Arnold then missed that game after coming in with a questionable status due to a matter from the weekend prior at Michigan.

Gentry is a leader on the defense for the Trojans this year. He has posted teams-highs of 30 tackles and two sacks so far along with a forced fumble and a recovery. That’s even more production from the linebacker in his third season at USC.

Missing Gentry would be a notable absence for their unit against the Golden Gophers. Still, Riley thinks they’ll be fine on that side with other players who could step up from their second level.

“Yeah, Eric is, you know – he’s a very good player. It changes some things – certainly not everything. I mean there’s maybe a few things that, you know, we might not do with Eric not there. There’s maybe a few things, with the other skillsets out there, that we might do more,” Riley explained. “So, I mean, I’d still venture to say, you know, 80% to 90% of what we’re going to do, we’re probably going to do whether he’s there or not. We do have a lot of confidence in the other guys in those positions.”

As for Arnold, he has also been impactful at safety after transferring in for his sixth year this fall. He has 13 tackles, a deflection, and half of a sack so far this season.

USC’s injury report should be released sometime today or tomorrow. It’ll be then when there’s a better idea on the availability for Gentry and Arnold ahead of kickoff in Minneapolis.