Lincoln Riley says Year 2 at USC 'feels much different' than Year 1

It’s tough to look at Lincoln Riley‘s first year at USC as anything but a success. Sure, the team didn’t win the Pac-12 title or its bowl game. But the Trojans won 11 games for only the second time since Pete Carroll left town and Caleb Williams won the Heisman Trophy.

But as Riley enters his second year leading USC, he said at Pac-12 Media Day that he feels much more comfortable in his still relatively new environment.

“Year two certainly feels much different than year one in a lot of ways,” Riley said. “It’s been great for all of us to get really settled in and acclimated to USC, to Los Angeles. Being in that market, being in that area is tremendous but it really changes everything you do in a football program. I think we’ve really been able to acclimate and do maybe a much smoother, more efficient job this time around. Obviously, really excited for the year.”

The Trojans went 11-3 last season, including an 8-1 record in conference play. Their losses were to Utah — both in the regular season and in the Pac-12 Championship Game — and to Tulane in the Cotton Bowl.

Two of those losses came by just one point.

“We feel like we learned a lot in year one about about what we are,” Riley said. “We took some tremendous steps, but also had some very obvious holes to fill and some improvements to be made and we feel like we’ve aggressively addressed a lot of those areas. You saw the difference. Certainly I think even in spring ball and just the competitive depth within our program. We knew that that was going to be a little bit of a journey, right? This day and age, and it’s been talked about a lot, you can build rosters faster than you could before. But you still can’t do everything in one year.”

Expectations are high for the Trojans in 2023. They have Williams back for one more year before he enters the NFL Draft and Riley has brought in a lot of talent around him on both sides of the ball.

While a College Football Playoff appearance may have been premature in 2022, that’s not the case in 2023.

“We were proud of what we did in year one but certainly very focused on what we felt like year two could be,” Riley said. “It was fun to see, again, the competitive depth especially in some key areas, the defensive front seven chief among those. I think watching this team unfold throughout spring into summer, a lot to be excited about. We got a great opportunity in front of us. I think everybody within our program, every player senses that and wants to do a great job of taking advantage of this because these windows are short and you only get so many shots at this.”

While this is the second year of Riley’s tenure, the even more interesting storyline regarding time is that this is USC’s last year in the Pac-12.

Riley said the move isn’t serving as motivation for the team but is making them reflect on their conference matchups more.

“Does it motivate us anymore if it wasn’t our last year in the Pac12?” Riley said. “No. But is there also a sense of this is your last chance to play some of these teams, to go into some of these venues? Absolutely. You feel that and we want to make sure and put our best foot forward.”