Lincoln Riley says Arizona will 'easily' be' one of the best offenses USC faces

With a bye week to recover from his team’s first loss of the season, Lincoln Riley and USC are getting ready to head to Arizona on Saturday. The Wildcats are 3-4 overall and 1-3 in league play, but Riley is looking past the record.

He had some high praise for Arizona, putting the offense among the best on the Trojans’ schedule this year.

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

“They’re easily one of the best offenses that we’ve played. Maybe the best,” Riley said on a Zoom call with reporters. “It’s a good group, quarterback really makes them go. So, so dangerous with his ability to scramble and create. Where he’s really unique is he’s so elusive. You watch the tapes, you feel like the guy should’ve been sacked like five more times. People actually get him on the ground. He’s an explosive athlete and very, very elusive. In some ways, he’s almost like a tailback in the way he evades defenders. He’s a confident kid. He takes the shots, he takes chances and he’s giving his receivers chances to make a lot of plays and they’ve certainly made their share of them.

“When you’ve got a tremendous athlete like that, you’ve got a handful of really good, productive receivers that have skill sets that compliment each other. It looks like they’ve stayed pretty healthy. Kind of the same group the whole year. They’ve gotten better and better as the years went on. Obviously, they put up some nice points here, especially as of late. It’s a super challenge. It is. It’s a challenge to all levels of the defense. We know we’ve got to have a very impactful game from our front. That one, obviously, stands out. We’ve got to do a good job on the receivers, especially in scramble situations.”

The Wildcats, led by quarterback Jayden de Laura, have the second-best passing offense in the Pac-12 this year with 2,341 yards — one spot ahead of USC and trailing only Washington. de Laura ranks ninth in the nation with 2,274 passing yards to go with 19 touchdowns. The former Washington State star was one of the highest-profile quarterback transfers of the 2021 cycle, coming in as the No. 13 quarterback in the On3 Transfer Portal Rankings.