Lincoln Riley calls defeat against Utah the most gut-wrenching loss of his career

Lincoln Riley called the latest loss to Utah the most “gut-wrenching” loss of his coaching career, and that says a lot with a third of the season left for USC.

Now with two losses, the Trojans can practically kiss the College Football Playoff goodbye this season. But, there’s still plenty to play for and finish out the season with double digit wins.

Still, it’s tough to lose to a familiar foe for Riley.

“This is the first time I’ve come into this room not with a win, so definitely not a feeling that I want to get used to,” Riley said postgame. “As gut-wrenching a defeat as I can remember in my career. Hate it for the guys in there. We fought our tails off.

“We fought so hard, and what a great surge there in the fourth quarter to take the lead. One play away. Give credit to Utah. We’ve had three great games with them. Great competitors. It was a heck of a ballgame. Wish we would have played a little bit cleaner, though.”

Riley chalked the game up to missed opportunities. That ended up being the difference between a win and a loss in front of the home crowd.

“Had some opportunities, especially during the first half, to separate a little bit but didn’t get it done,” Riley said. “Stalled out offensively there in the second and third quarter and were able to kind of get it going there a little bit at the end. I thought defensively we battled all night. Had the huge pick-six, had some really big-time plays, some big plays in the kicking game as well. It was a good heavyweight battle. Two good football teams going at it, and it came down to the last play. 

“The locker room’s pretty torn up right now, as it should be. We’ve had two tough losses in a row and obviously not how any of us scripted this. But you can’t script it — it’s college football. It comes down to little things here and there, and we haven’t quite played clean enough here in the last couple of weeks to take advantage of it. We have played very hard, and the guys really sold out. We got a lot better this week at practice, and our fight cannot be questioned. We have to play better, we realize that.”

Lincoln Riley reacts to ‘gut-wrenching’ defeat to Utah

All is not lost for Riley and USC though. With four games remaining on the schedule, USC has to play Washington and Oregon, two teams in front of the Trojans in the Pac-12 standings.

Throw in Cal and UCLA, the Trojans can make up serious ground and get back to the Pac-12 title game.

“Also it’s important for us to take stock of that we still sit in a very advantageous position in this conference,” Riley said. “We’ve got some big opportunities coming up. There’s a lot left that’s going to happen. And if we’ll continue to fight and prepare the way that we did this week, we’ll have our chances. So we’ve gotta get past it, gotta get on to the next one.

“We’re kind of in one of those tough stretches that you gotta go dig yourself out of. This is when you get tested as a program; you get tested as a coach and a leader; you get tested as all the staff members, all the players in there.” 

Riley described what it would take to get it going for USC down the stretch and overcome two straight losses.

“It’s how committed are you to what we’re building in this toughest time, maybe one of the tougher times that we’ve had here in the few years,” Riley said. “Do you pull closer to that, or do you start to drift away from it? And that was our challenge to the guys in the locker room. I believe in the young men we have in there; I believe in the staff members that we have in there; I very much believe in how we’ll respond, and we’ll get the chance to define it. 

“That’s the beautiful thing about this game. I’m proud of the fight. We know we’ve got to play better to play up to our capability. But I still know that there’s a lot out there for this team even though some people count us out, that’s okay. There’s a lot left for this team. I’m excited for our journey here the rest of the way. There’s still a lot left to play for.”