Lincoln Riley addresses decision to close practice to media for rest of season

After last week’s victory over Rutgers, Lincoln Riley and USC made a change to the weekly plan. Practices will be closed to the media for the rest of the year, and he explained that decision Tuesday during his regular press conference.

Riley said USC switched things up during the short week leading up to the Friday night win against Rutgers. The staff liked what it saw, which is why the Trojans decided to make it a permanent change and close practices to reporters the remainder of the season.

Some changes before practice also led to the switch, Riley added. But the media-viewing period will come to an end.

“We evaluated some things last week,” Riley said. “We’ve made some changes to the way that we’re handling pre-practice, just with the short week and we liked how our team handled it, responded to it. With that, we’re continuing forward with a lot of the things we did last week, and it just didn’t make sense to have it, honestly.”

USC was struggling through the first part of the season, taking a 3-4 overall record and 1-4 mark in Big Ten play into last week’s Friday night showdown. But the Trojans rose to the occasion, defeating Rutgers 42-20 to get back to .500 and end the losing streak in conference action.

It was quite the bounce back for USC following a loss to Maryland. But Lincoln Riley said the Trojans had to continue focusing on the task at hand and not dwell on the struggles.

“Staying the course,” Riley said. “I think when you have adversity, it tests your resolve, and it tests how committed you are to the process and the things you do. And going through these last few weeks has made me even more sure of where I’m at and what we’re doing.”

Riley’s group will now get ready to take on an up-and-down Washington team ahead of the bye week. From there, three games will remain – two against Big Ten opponents and the rivalry matchup against Notre Dame in the season finale.