Tuli Tuipulotu shares thoughts on Lincoln Riley's first season at USC

It’s fair to chalk up Lincoln Riley’s first season at USC as a success, leading the Trojans to an 11-1 regular season record, a conference championship appearance, and ending the season ranked No. 10 in the final College Football Playoff Poll. The Trojans came up just short of a Pac-12 Championship win and a College Football Playoff appearance, but despite that had a great season in year one with Riley.

Trojans’ linebacker Tuli Tuipulotu was asked about how year one of the Lincoln Riley era went, taking it back to the beginning when he first arrived at campus, comparing his presence to another head coach who’s recently been newly hired.

“I think y’all are pretty familiar with that video that came out with Deion Sanders at Colorado, I feel like for us it was kind of the same, telling us that he’s coming and he’s gonna bring a whole different vibe and culture and that’s what he had to buy in. We had a pretty good season so that’s thanks to him and all the staff that he brought in,” Tuipulotu said.

Riley didn’t just bring in a new staff, but a lot of new players from the transfer portal. The big question heading into the season was if Riley could get all of his new players on the same page and up to speed in such a short amount of time, which the Trojans quickly answered by achieving their first 11-win season since 2017.

“It’s surprising because it did go pretty smoothly, we had a bunch of transfers come in this off season and it wasn’t too hard adjusting to it,” Tuipulotu said. “They came in, became brothers, and we just went from there.”

It seems like Riley has established a solid culture and foundation in a short amount of time, which the Trojans are hoping they can continue to build on in the future. USC can be seen in their season finale as they take on Tulane in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on January 2 airing on ESPN.

Tuli Tuipulotu makes case for Caleb Williams to win Heisman Trophy

Not to the surprise of many, USC quarterback Caleb Williams was announced Monday as one of four finalists for this year’s Heisman Trophy award. Williams had an electric season this year for the Trojans, and defensive end Tuli Tuipulotu got a front row seat to the show he’d put on week in and week out. Tuipulotu spoke about his quarterback and why he deserves to leave New York with the hardware on Saturday.

“In my opinion I think he should win for sure, y’all see what he does on the field, not many quarterbacks can do that,” Tuipulotu said.

Williams was definitely playing the quarterback position at as high of a level as you can this season, throwing for 4,075 yards (fourth in the nation), and 37 touchdowns (tied for first in the nation). He was efficient all year completing 66% of his passes and only throwing four interceptions, while also establishing himself as a running threat, ending the year with 10 rushing touchdowns.

His performance on the field certainly speaks for itself, but Tuipulotu also spoke on Williams’ impact off the field, which he was able to make in just a short amount of time after joining the team just this year from Oklahoma.

“Great leader, great person off the field, y’all know all the things he does in the community, he just got here and he’s already doing stuff for our school and all that,” Tuipulotu said. “He’s a great person, a great quarterback and he for sure deserves to win the Heisman.”

Williams currently has the best odds to take home the Heisman Trophy at -1600, and if he wins will become the eighth player in school history to receive the award, making the Trojans the program with the most winners of the awards all time.