Lincoln Riley shares which USC players stood out in spring game

USC‘s spring game signified the end of the Trojans’ second spring practices under head coach Lincoln Riley. Riley helped take the Trojans to new heights last year, and will look to build on the foundation he’s built in his second season at the helm. Both sides of the ball showed promise in the Trojans’ spring game, and afterward, Riley evaluated which players stood out the most.

“It’s always the hardest day for me to evaluate because during a normal game I’m on the sideline and either one of our special teams, our offense, our defense is out there,” Riley explained. “And I’m, other than offense when I’m calling it, you’re about to kind of see it all, whereas this one it just goes and goes and goes and goes.”

Riley may have been in a unique situation in terms of assessing his players, but still listed off a handful of Trojans that stood out. Which included defensive back Jacobe Covington, who sealed the 42-34 win for the defense with an interception on the last play of the game.

“Obviously Jacobe’s play at the end and he had a couple other plays today I thought really stood out,” Riley said. “Christian Pierce‘s play, we’ve seen a couple shots of that from Christian’s this spring. I don’t think anybody on either sideline was real surprised to see that. MarShawn (Lloyd) had a couple of great plays like he’s had really throughout spring.”

Covington ended the scrimmage with two interceptions, and Pierce got involved in the rush defense with three tackles on the day. Llyod joined the team this offseason, transferring in from South Carolina where he rushed for 801 yards in three seasons, providing another dynamic backfield threat for the Trojans’ high-powered offense.

Riley understands that his spring game wasn’t perfection, but he’s more than pleased about the progress he’s seen from his squad overall and in some of the individual, standout performances that were displayed.

“Listen no side was perfect, both sides at times where plays were being made against them, both sides had some really big plays of their own. We kind of had stretches where the defense was winning and stopping, we had stretches where the offense was scoring, just a little bit of everything and I thought the guys handled it well. Denis (Lynch) obviously hit the ball well which was really good, great to get some of those live kicking situations but yeah, I think a lot to be excited about,” Riley said. “I don’t know that I would single anyone out, I’ll certainly answer questions individually about any of the guys, but very reminiscent and just very representative of of what we’ve seen up to this point for the last 14 practices.”