Lincoln Riley on DL depth after Bear Alexander departure: 'I don't think it's changed'

Life came at Lincoln Riley fast this week, as he went from saying on Tuesday that there was “no story” behind Bear Alexander seemingly being upset with his role to the defensive tackle on Thursday reportedly planning to redshirt and transfer after this season. But the USC head coach is still bullish on the defensive line room the Trojans have.

Alexander, who transferred in from Georgia ahead of the 2023 season, was arguably the Trojans’ most talented interior line defender. Even still, the Trojans have featured a deep rotation this year — Alexander was seemingly upset because he played 21 of 58 possible snaps in a loss to Michigan — that Riley expects to step up in the absence of Alexander.

“I don’t think it’s changed, really. It’s been high from the start of the season,” Riley said of competition and expectations from the defensive line room. “We’ve got a lot of guys in that room that are contributing, that are playing at a high level. We don’t have some of the plays and results that we’ve had defensively without that so it’s going to be about the group and their effort. And yeah, just got our business as usual.”

And he did acknowledge that with Alexander gone from the lineup, it does leave a void for someone — or someones — to step up and make an impact.

“Will that void create some opportunities for more snaps for other people or the ability for us to potentially move around some chess pieces? Sure it will, in the same if somebody injured or any other player wasn’t available,” Riley said. “So, that’s how we’re viewing it and there’s a lot of excitement about the opportunities it’ll create for some of these guys and I think we’ll have several guys jump up this season and a lot of people want to play for this defense and this defensive line right now. We’ve got a good, hungry group in there and excited to see those guys continue to go to work and affect games.” 

After the Michigan game, Alexander tweeted “FREE 9-OWE” along with pictures of himself in Michigan Stadium, as his guardian also agitated online.

Asked about it on Tuesday, Riley demurred on the situation.

“He played over a third of the game. People want to act like he’s not playing snaps. He’s doing a good job for us out here,” Riley said. USC played 58 defensive snaps on Saturday.

He continued: “There’s no story there. I know you guys are looking for one. There’s no story there. Guy’s out here working hard. He’s in a new system, with a new coach. He’s getting better, and I think he’s going to get better. It should be hard to play D-line at USC. It ought to be kind of hard. It wasn’t hard last year, that’s why were weren’t very good up front. You know what, we’re pretty decent up there. And it’s hard. The margins are thin. So sometimes, it’s not what someone is not doing, but it’s competitive, and there’s tough decisions to make every week.”