Lincoln Riley evaluates the current state of USC's roster entering Year 2

USC head coach Lincoln Riley will be looking to build on the early momentum he’s created for the Trojans as he heads into his second season at the helm. The Trojans lost some talent and brought in some fresh faces this offseason, as Riley broke down the biggest differences between last year’s team and this one so far at spring practice.

“Well we’re bigger and we’re stronger, and I mean some of that you can just go out there in the eye test and you can just tell,” Riley said. “Some of it is just true numbers, I mean the amount of team reps of 225 versus this time 12 months ago it’s like looking at junior high versus high school and it’s really that much of a difference.”

It sounds like the Trojans may be more physically imposing this year, which compounded with the level of competitiveness they’ve been displaying this offseason could result in a nightmare for their opponents this upcoming season.

“The other thing I see is the competitive depth starting to really show up at all the positions, especially a few of the positions where it wasn’t at a championship level last year where you had some really good individual players but across the board it maybe wasn’t quite what we needed it to be. So I just see more competition at each spot, I see more physicality,” Riley said.

Spring practice last season for the Trojans consisted of teaching a new offense and defense with a new staff to a team largely comprised of new transfer portal additions. But now with more continuity following a full, successful season, Riley’s team can just put their heads down and get after it.

“Saturday was our first day to be able to go live, full tackle, and we had a short yardage and goal line period and just the intensity of that period. You can kind of sit there as a coach and sometimes not watch something specific but just the entire drill and you can feel when it’s two groups really going at it and it’s been a little more sense of that,” Riley said. “And even when there’s a rotation or the second group goes in you still feel like the quality is in a better place.”

Riley led the Trojans to an 11-1 regular season record, followed by Pac-12 Championship and Cotton Bowl appearances. And it may be early, but the current state of his roster combined with some new additions could result in USC being even more dangerous this season than the last.

“So I think the roster as a whole, we’re taking some strides, there’s no question. There’s a lot of guys who are excited about it, the newcomers that we’ve been able to see up to this point have all been – you get a few days with them they’re …”

“As advertised,” interviewer Shaun Cody said.

“Exactly,” Riley replied. “And then obviously we got a handful more that’ll be here in June to add to the group.”