Lincoln Riley says USC's defense is 'totally different' than it was in 2022

Last season USC Trojans’ defense was the Achilles’ heel of the team and is arguably the reason why they came up short at the end of the year. But head coach Lincoln Riley sees a huge difference in his team in how they look compared to this time last year. The season hasn’t even started yet, and Riley already sees a totally different unit than it was in 2022, especially in the secondary and front seven.

“Oh yeah, I mean, totally different. From a scheme knowledge standpoint, from a talent standpoint, especially in the front seven,” said Riley. “The competitive depth, defensively last year, there was a little bit of a sense of you had your handful of really good players, and then there was too much of a gap between those guys and everybody else. Whereas now, you’ve got some really good outstanding individual players, but the gap has closed.

“And because of that, we have more competition (and) more depth. Guys really have to push. Guys know the system better. We got some good leaders on the side. Certainly (we’re) a long way from where we were a year ago; there’s no question about that. Still, a long way to go. But I’ve been encouraged that I’ve seen the spring, again, particularly the depth in the front seven. And then the emergence of the guys in the secondary would be two things I’ve been most excited about.”

Riley has enjoyed the improvement hes throughout his defense this spring. As he highlighted, the front seven and secondary have taken huge steps in the right direction. One of the places in the secondary where he’s noticing a great deal of progress is at the nickelback position. During the interview, the Trojans’ headman also broke down where USC stands at nickel. 

“The spot last year was inconsistent. Had some good moments, but we weren’t productive enough at that spot,” said Riley. “I feel about that spot kind of like we felt a little bit about inside linebacker. Like had our moments; we had some really nice plays, but we weren’t consistently the presence that we needed to be. And obviously, that’s a super key position in our defense. It gets a lot of action. Those guys have got to do a lot. They gotta blitz, be in run fits, cover; they’re kind of right in the middle of the action.” 

USC ranked near the bottom of the nation in total defense last year, finishing this season at 106 out of 131 total teams. The Trojans gave up a staggering 6.53 yards per play and 423.9 yards per game. And over 14 games, they allowed an average of 264.1 yards in passing office.