Lincoln Riley admits USC has some things to sort out on offensive line

The USC Trojans started their 2023 campaign strong with a home victory over the San Jose State Spartans. USC took down their in-state foe 56-28 in large part thanks to a stellar offensive performance led by 2022 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams.

But while the Trojans enjoyed success in their Week 0, head coach Lincoln Riley knows that there is still more work to be done, especially along the offensive line. Following their victory over San Jose State, the USC headman revealed that there are still some things that need to be sorted out along their offensive line.

“Well, a lot of it is for positive reasons. But yeah, we’ve got some things to sort out. We think we got multiple guys that are capable of being starters,” said Riley. “This will be an interesting film to go back and look at to see how some of those guys did. I thought they settled in some as the game went on.

“We’ve got to find the right combination, which we will. But specifically at the guard positions, it’ll be interesting. There’s going to be a lot of competition, and not just that position but a lot of others right now. Again, that’s how we want it to be. We don’t want guys feeling comfortable; we want guys pressing, knowing that they need to get better for the team and they need to get better to continue to get reps. And it’ll be expected of the O-line and every other group.

Despite a few miscues along the offensive line, USC still put together a +500-yard total offense performance, averaging nearly 10 yards per pass and five yards per run. The Trojans will have a week’s worth of time to get their offensive line issues resolved before they take on the Nevada Wolf Pack at home on Saturday, September 2.

Riley learned a lot about USC’s front seven during Week 0

Riley also addressed USC’s defensive front seven and how they performed in their season opener. The Trojans only generated one sack on the day, but Riley was pleased with their consistent pressure on quarterback Chevan Cordeiro, as their front seven also stayed in the backfield in the run game with seven tackles for loss.

“There was a lot of exciting things to see there. We still made some mistakes there, but you see kind of what we’ve been building. You see just the beginning, you see the sparks and now we’ve got to get that thing full bore,” Riley said. “And I feel really the same way from the linebackers, we made a couple plays that were phenomenal that I don’t know that we make at any point in the season before.”

Riley learning a lot about his front seven also includes learning what they need to improve on.

It was far from a perfect performance for USC’s defense, who gave up 28 points and 198 yards on the ground to San Jose State, as the Spartans averaged 7.3 yards per rush on Saturday.

“We made a couple critical mistakes. There’s two or three plays from the linebacker position that directly attributed to 21 points and we can’t make those,” Riley admitted. “But seeing the way we fly around, seeing the way these guys approach it, seeing the competition in the room, I think they’re gonna get corrected quick. And I think these guys are gonna get better fast.”