Lincoln Riley shares how flu outbreak impacts USC preparation vs. UCLA

It’s flu season in Los Angeles with the virus making its way through the USC roster ahead of Saturday’s matchup against UCLA. Several Trojans players are dealing with illness this week, which has made the preparation difficult as they have been held out of practice.

USC coach Lincoln Riley was asked about the issue during his weekly press conference, coincidentally letting out a cough right as the question came through. He joked about the moment before giving his answer about how the outbreak has impacted the Trojans.

“Perfect timing,” the coach said with a laugh. “It’s had a little bit of an impact. That’s part of it, though. It’s like I told the guys today, Saturday at 7:30, no one’s gonna care what you had or didn’t have. You gotta go out there and play the game. You have different obstacles that come up and you’ve gotta go face them. We’ll deal with it and adjust how we need to. But no excuses. Gotta be ready for Saturday.”

It’s unclear exactly how many players are out with the illness or even which ones, but that should become evident Wednesday when the injury report is released. However, Riley did share that things have taken a turn for the worse of late with USC’s flu outbreak.

“A little bit,” he said when asked whether more people were coming down with the flu. “Most of the people, it’s been running its course. Kind of 48-72 hours. We’re thinking probably today we’re at the peak of it and I think we’ll get better from there.”

USC is coming off of a 28-20 win against Nebraska this past week and needs just one more win to reach bowl eligibility. The Trojans recently benched quarterback Miller Moss in favor of Jayden Maiava, who gave the offense new life while throwing for 259 yards and three touchdowns to one interception.

We’ll see what the health of the team looks like when the game kicks off at 10:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.