Lincoln Riley still has championship aspirations for USC after first loss of season

No. 12 USC suffered a gut-wrenching loss to Utah on Saturday when the Utes plunged into the end zone on a game-winning two-point conversion. But make no mistake about it: There are still championship aspirations at USC.

And few coaches have more experience bouncing back from a midseason loss to win a conference championship than Lincoln Riley.

“I’ve been here. I know what this looks like,” Riley said on his weekly appearance on the Trojans Live program. “I’ve been a part of teams four different times where we suffered a loss at some point in the year and we ended up with a ring on our finger and in the College Football Playoff.”

While at Oklahoma, Riley led teams to four straight Big 12 titles from 2017-20. Not once did the Sooners make it through the regular-season conference slate unblemished.

Point being: There’s a ton still to play for.

“How can you not be excited about what we’ve done up to this point and, in a lot of ways, the position we put ourselves in Saturday night against the defending conference champion in probably their biggest home game of the year?” Riley said. “One play at the end of the game is not going to change how you feel about your football team.”

USC’s championship aspirations mean team needs to double down

For the Trojans, it’s all about bouncing back from here. USC won’t get a shot at Oregon this regular season, so it needs to ensure it takes care of business the rest of the way. Set up a potential conference title game against the Ducks (or the Utes again) and there’s still a path to the College Football Playoffs for a one-loss USC team.

“I know what it looks like and I think this team is capable of a tremendous run here to finish,” Riley said.

USC’s road the rest of the way begins with a trip to Arizona on Oct. 29. But first Riley and his squad get an extra week to regroup and refocus during a bye.

Riley seemed calm and confident on his Trojans Live appearance.

“This team battles and this team is extremely competitive,” he said. “We’ve got a really good football team, and we’ve got a real opportunity to do something very, very cool here.”