Lincoln Riley stresses importance of strong defensive lineman like Bear Alexander

USC head coach Lincoln Riley has one of the best offensive minds in college football. Riley knows as well as anyone what offenses don’t like going up against. To him, one of the biggest challenges you can face as an offense is an elite defensive tackle. He believes USC has that in Bear Alexander.

The Georgia transfer has come in and made an immediate impact for the Trojans. In two games he has five tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass breakup. Alexander’s stats don’t jump off the page, but he has made a bigger impact than what the stats show.

“I think having great interior players can be one of the great advantages defensively,” Lincoln Riley said. “I think offensively, it’s one of the toughest things to deal with when there’s an elite inside guy, because they’re going to be a part of the run game. Anytime you can get push in the interior of the pocket, in the throw game, it’s a factor.”

There are times when you can scheme around an elite defensive player. However, that’s not an option with a defensive tackle like Bear Alexander, according to Riley.

“If there’s a great corner, or even at times maybe a great d-end, maybe you can do some things just away from them,” Riley said. “But linebackers and interior d-linemen are just obviously, naturally by alignment, they’re kind of right there in the middle of it all.”

As an example of how important defensive tackles can be, Riley pointed to one of the top players in the NFL and the impact he makes each week.

“Look at the NFL and the guy that’s been the most dominant player in the NFL for probably a long time, which is right down the road here with Aaron [Donald],” Riley said.

Getting better at defensive tackle was a big emphasis for Riley and USC this offseason, and he believes the Trojans have done that.

Bear Alexander is a big part of that after he played well for Georgia in 2022, including making a pair of tackles for loss in the national championship game, prior to transferring to USC.

“It’s important,” Riley said. “Obviously it kind of goes back to our conversation in the offseason of that was an area we knew we had to take some big steps, I think, between several of those guys inside. We’ve seen some real positive signs here through the first few [games].”

USC is 2-0 with wins over San Jose State and Nevada. Up next, the Trojans host Stanford on Saturday.