Lincoln Riley confirms Mason Cobb will be available against Arizona State

USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley just revealed some major news as the team prepares for their Week 4 matchup against Arizona State.

For the early part of the season, USC’s defense has progressively gotten better week in and week out despite missing some of their key players. One of which is veteran transfer linebacker Mason Cobb. But Cobb’s field absence ends this weekend as the Trojans’ headman revealed during a recent media availability.

“Yeah, Mason has definitely taken advantage of the bye week,” said Riley. “He’s going to be available to play. I don’t think that we’re going to have any restrictions or limitations, which that’s a really positive thing. It will be great to get him back.”

It was widely speculated that Cobb would return to action Saturday night against Arizona State. Now, Riley has confirmed the news that all USC fans have been waiting to hear about their defensive veteran and team captain.

The last time we saw Cobb in action was against San Jose State to open the season. USC won the game 65-28, and their senior linebacker finished the contest with six total tackles, five of them solo.

It was never fully disclosed just what injuries Cobb was dealing with, but Riley and defensive coordinator Alex Grinch thought it best for him to sit out the Trojans’ following two games. USC was able to take care of business at home in both contests, beating Nevada 66-14 and crushing Stanford in their Pac-12 season opener, 56-10.

USC, Lincoln Riley reverse course on suspending beat reporter 

USC football and Riley have reversed course on barring Orange County Register beat writer Luca Evans from covering the team for two weeks after intense public pushback, both locally and nationally. The revocation of Evans’ credential had been appealed and left in place by the USC athletic administration already.

But after the story broke on Tuesday that USC had barred Evans from access for supposed violations of team and athletic department media policies, the backlash was swift and fierce. And less than 48 hours after the story broke, Riley and USC are backing down after a “candid and productive conversation” between the head coach and beat reporter.

“Last night, I received a call from Luca Evans, and we had [a] very candid and productive conversation. We agreed that we both could have handled the situation differently. I appreciate Luca recognizing the policies we have in place to protect our student-athletes and acknowledging to adhere to those in the future. We welcome Luca back to practice and look forward to his continuing coverage of the Trojans,” Riley said in a statement.