Lincoln Riley on building defensive identity at USC

Lincoln Riley and his Oklahoma teams have become known for offensive firepower, but during an interview on ESPN2 this Wednesday, he spoke about the need to create a defensive identity at USC.

With returning players like Korey Foreman already on campus and incoming transfers from across the country, Lincoln Riley and his staff hope to build the defense into a strength of the USC team.

“I think when we got here and had a chance to assess the roster, I think we found a lot of really good building blocks – a lot of them young – that we’re excited to build this around,” Riley said. “But certainly, we’ve been pretty aggressive with the transfer portal on all sides. Certainly, defensively as well, we feel like we’ve added some really good pieces on all three levels of our defense. And we will continue to do so as spring goes on and as we get past the spring practice period.

“But obviously, bringing in Alex Grinch and a really experienced and talented defensive staff was step one. We love some of the players that we’ve added, we love some of the players we’ve inherited. And we’ll continue to build that roster on that side of the ball,” Riley continued. “We certainly know how important that is. And if you look back at the history of USC, especially some of the dominant runs this program has had, it’s typically been characterized by an elite defense, and that’s certainly where we expect to be.”

In addition to Alex Grinch, the new USC staff was able to keep former interim head coach and defensive backs coach Donte Williams in the program. The combination of new and old coaches helped keep the key pieces of the USC defense on the roster with transfer reinforcements coming as well.

Lincoln Riley on West Coast talent

In recent seasons, Southern California natives Bryce Young, DJ Uiagalelei and Kayvon Thibodeaux have earned five-star ratings before escaping the grasp of the Trojans in favor of options all across the country. Lincoln Riley addressed the need to change that trend quickly, keeping west coast players home during a Wednesday interview on ESPN2.

“I think the number one thing is, we give them a program on all levels that makes it so good that they don’t feel like they have to leave the state of California to go get what these guys want to have as players,” said Riley. “You’ve got history, tradition, you’ve got the city of L.A., you’ve got one of the elite academic institutions in the country, one of the great college football programs of all time. So there’s a lot of great things in place, but players want to see momentum. They want to see that you’re being progressive as a university, you’re being progressive as a football program and athletic department.