Lincoln Riley reveals adjustments to scheme at USC

Will Lincoln Riley’s USC look just like Lincoln Riley’s Oklahoma? That’s a question ESPN’s Greg McElroy asked the new Trojans head coach on his “Always College Football” podcast. Riley expressed that sure, there will definitely be elements of his system with the Sooners that carry over to Southern Cal. However, a healthy amount of change will also occur among Riley and the staff at the new gig.

You can read his full comments on the question right here:

“There’ll be pieces of both, for sure. Schematically, we’ve always taken pride on all sides of the ball. Being on the cutting edge and being guys that innovate and can adjust to what our opponents are doing. Adjust to the personnel that we have. So that certainly won’t change. But I think we’ll continue to evolve. And then I think too there’s some differences in just the nature of the programs. Obviously, I took over a program that was doing very well at the time with Coach Stoops in Oklahoma. We certainly changed some things along the way, but there was probably a little bit less to change and more to continue to try to build on and find ways to be better.

“This is a different situation. But with that, it also provides kind of a blank canvas to start and build exactly the way that you feel is best and that we as a staff feels is best. So there are some advantages there, without a doubt. Instilling the culture and the mentality that we believe in, in some ways, there’s the give and take.”

Riley does have some pieces coming along with him from Norman to help instill some of that Oklahoma culture. Namely, touted QB-WR duo Caleb Williams and Mario Williams, who can make that Trojans offense spark like the Sooners did. Those two may help him start with an established identity of some sort, like when he took over Oklahoma.

“The other program — took over in a better state, a better culture. But maybe more difficult to sometimes make the changes you want to make. Whereas here, to be able to start from the ground floor with these guys, there are some built-in advantages. We felt like we’ve seen some of that here in the first few months. We’ve enjoyed that part of it.

“To answer your question, there’s certainly going to be parts that were the same. We won a lot of games at OU, had a lot of success. We’re not going to completely scrap what we’re doing but I do think there’s areas that we feel like we can be better as a staff. We want to adapt to what we feel like we can be here at SC.”

Long answer short: Lincoln Riley won’t ditch the philosophies that won him conference titles and earned CFP appearances at Oklahoma. However, he’s excited to mold the USC program in different ways as well.