Lincoln Riley evaluates USC's defensive performance versus Rice

Lincoln Riley believes the USC defense is off to a great start after their performance in victory over Rice on Saturday.

While defeating the Owls 66-14, the Trojans defense amassed not one, not two but a pick six on three separate occasions. Additionally, they held the Owls in complete check, allowing a measly 134 yards passing and 146 yards rushing from Rice.

Afterwards, Riley elaborated on the performance from the unit in his post-game press conference.

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“Hopefully we can get four pick-sixes next week, that’d be awesome,” joked Riley. “It was a good performer. We did a lot of really good things. We had a couple of busts that hurt us, a couple of just times where we didn’t do our job. A couple of times in the run game where, whether we’re supposed to be leveraging a block or box spilling a block, that we came out of it. That’s when there were some of the creases in there. But we rallied, we made the plays we needed to make. I would say all three sides of the ball were very, very similar. There was some obvious good, a lot of big plays, but there clearly is a lot to get better at, which makes it like every first game I’ve ever coached.

“So we’ll all get back to the drawing board, and the most important day is practice on Monday.”

Nevertheless, it was a good performance for the USC defense, who is bound to be tested more by Stanford next weekend.

Lincoln Riley assesses Caleb Williams’ performance in his first game as USC’s QB1

Continuing, Lincoln Riley spoke on Caleb Williams’ USC debut after their game against the Rice Owls this weekend. He thought the quarterback controlled the game throughout and took advantage of the great play from his offensive line.

“I thought he played well. I thought he was in control, in command, and I thought he saw the field well,” said Riley. “Our guys up front did a really good job protecting him so he didn’t have to move around a ton. I thought he just played very much in control and very much at ease.”

Williams basically picked right up where he left off in the 2021 season with Oklahoma. He produced 249 yards and two touchdowns with his arm with an additional 68 yards with his legs.

The most impressive thing about Williams’ performance to Riley was the management. With all the new pieces at USC, someone needed to be responsible for getting all of their ducks in a row. That was Williams on Saturday in a performance that Riley thought was nothing short of excellent.

“I think when quarterbacks are playing at a high level, it oftentimes looks like that,” Riley said. “(He) threw the ball accurately and managed it. It was a really good first start for him.”