Lincoln Riley looks back on how his offensive approach has changed in his career

Lincoln Riley is ready for another go-round with the USC Trojans, bringing them to the Big Ten ahead of the 2024 college football campaign.

Speaking with the media, Riley was questioned about how he’s evolved as an offensive play-caller throughout the multiple stops in his career, to which he gave a thoughtful answer on the matter.

“Well, to me, it’s always been about just, how can we find advantages with the cards that we have,” Riley said, regarding the evolution of his offensive philosophy. “You know, at East Carolina, we were, you know, for the most part, our personnel wasn’t as good as just about everybody we played. And so, we had to figure out a way to beat the NC States and the Carolinas, and then, you know, Virginia Techs of the world with, you know, personnel, and certainly depth that didn’t quite look like theirs. And so at that time, I felt like that was our best advantage. Yeah, as the years have gone on, you know, both at OU and here, it’s changed at different times.

“Certainly, you know, when you become a head coach, there’s a — you think even bigger about it, in terms of, you know, complimentary football for all three sides, does what you’re doing offensively, you know, does it fit with what you’re doing defensively? What’s your plan of attack to win a game, and what’s the offense’s role, and then, combined with the skill set you have and what you think is going to make you effective to be able to score points.”

Evidently, Riley doesn’t care about the traditional ways to measure offensive output, it’s all about notching victories for his offense in 2024.

“So, yeah, to me, it’s just about winning,” Riley added. “Like, I don’t like, you ask people that, like, I don’t look at stats. I’ve never, I don’t look at stats pregame. I don’t even look at them post-game, other than just when I’m on the podium. So I can, you know, honestly, the only reason I look at them is so I can reasonably answer some of those questions. Like, I don’t like the traditional stats, like, how many yards? And like, how many guys, how many, you know, yards they got through, for rushing, for receiving. Like, I don’t care about that. Like, that’s irrelevant to me. There are stats that matter, but the ones to me are the stats that define winning.

“So, yeah, whatever offensively, defensively, special teams, we’ve got to do to win, you know, that’s my mentality. But I don’t want to be, I don’t ever want to be limited. Like, well, we can only play one way, you know, because eventually, somebody’s going to keep you from playing that way, or a situation is going to keep you from it, and you’re not going to be ready. You know, going into the Big Ten, we’re going to get into some new situations, and we’re going to have to have answers as a football team, to go in and be successful, and all of our evolution will be a part of that.”

The Big Ten will be a fascinating new challenge for Lincoln Riley and the Trojans. Time will tell how he gets USC ready, but they could be a force in their new conference as early as Year 1.