Lincoln Riley shares when USC realized it needed to be bigger up front

USC‘s defense will look different next season with head coach Lincoln Riley making numerous changes to his defensive staff this offseason.

The Trojans gave up a whopping 34.9 points per game last season, resulting in defensive coordinator Alex Grinch being fired following USC’s Week 10 loss to Washington. Which was highlighted by giving up 316 yards on the ground and 52 points to the Huskies.

Stopping the run was one of USC’s major issues last season ranking last in the Pac-12 in rushing yards allowed per game. And with that in mind, Riley was recently asked when he knew bolstering up his defensive front had to be made a top priority.

“I think definitely in the second half of the season that certainly showed up, we obviously played a pretty tough stretch of games there in the back half of the season. But typically that November football, that’s when that tends to show up and I thought we got a little bit worn down. We got a little bit worn down physically, had some games obviously that we didn’t stop the run very well,” Riley said.

USC went a disappointing 1-5 to end the regular season, highlighted by poor play on the defensive line. A unit that Riley has not quite been able to get right since his arrival in Los Angeles.

“I think there’s certainly a piece of me that believed that even going into the season that was gonna need to continue. I mean I know we sat here 12 months ago or 13 months ago when we had the long sit down last year and we talked at length about the depth up front and continuing to try to get bigger,” Riley explained. “But yeah, I think certainly throughout the second half of the season feeling like we had to really make some drastic changes there in terms of the body types to play the way that we wanted to play.”

The Trojans attempted to add some size to their defensive line last offseason, bringing in transfers like Bear Alexander, Kyon Barrs, and Anthony Lucas who all weight 285+ pounds. But they’ve doubled down on that this offseason, signing a pair of 270-pound high school defensive linemen (Jide Abasiri and Carlon Jones) along with transfer additions like Nate Clifton and Isaiah Raikes from the SEC.

“And some of that was knowing obviously after we made the change defensively that we were gonna be going in a different direction in terms of schematics and how we use those guys,” Riley said. “So it all kind of just fit together.”

Having size and looking the part is one thing, but getting production out of that size within a new defensive scheme is another. Which the Trojans’ new defensive staff will look to do as they enter the Big Ten Conference this season known for it’s exceptional play within the trenches.