Everything Lincoln Riley said before Notre Dame football vs. USC Trojans

The first question of Southern Cal coach Lincoln Riley‘s Tuesday post-practice media scrum was about evaluating USC’s offensive performance this season. Riley wanted to take it a different direction, though.

He wanted to talk about the Fighting Irish.

“I’m kind of about Notre Dame right now,” Riley said. “I know there will be a time and place to look back and talk about things in their entirety, but we got a cool opportunity in front of us right now.”

That cool opportunity is the chance to play spoiler for USC’s biggest rival, the Irish, who are ranked No. 5 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings and are projected as the No. 7 seed in the playoff bracket. But if they were to lose to the unranked Trojans (6-5) on Saturday? All bets would be off.

Riley had to wait until the last question of his session with the media, though, to field a Notre Dame-centric topic. That’s just sort of the state of his program right now — a lot of internal questioning.

Here’s everything Riley said in his short meeting with reporters.

On evaluating USC’s lack of offensive firepower vs. UCLA

“There was one play call where — I’m not their defensive coordinator, but I’m pretty sure they were misaligned — that I would recognize where we could have done better. Everything else was kind of there, we just didn’t make plays. That’s on us too. We all own it. The calls, the coaching, the execution — we all own it. We had opportunities to make ’em. We got to go make ’em. We got to coach better and execute better.”

On what USC fans can expect on national signing day

“A lot. We’re excited about it. I think it’s going to be a great, fun, exciting close. It’s so unique right now because it’s just jumping up on us so quick. Us not being in homes, not getting a chance to go out on the road and recruit, we’ve had a chance to go evaluate and go see games, but that whole piece has been very, very different. I know it has been for everybody across the country and because of that you’re seeing a little volatility that you’re going to see.

“You’re seeing it all over the country, guys moving around. And you’re seeing it for two reasons. You’re seeing guys change their mind for whatever reason it is and it’s unique because you can’t go get in front of their faces right now. And you’re seeing some schools that are changing their minds, and you’re actually seeing that a lot more than ever before in my opinion. And that’s just the nature of — that’s just the world that we’re in right now.

“Players have always changed their mind and they’ve probably changed it more and more in the last several years than ever before. It’s probably up-ticked as time has gone on. But there is a lot of schools that are changing their mind, too, but it’s not like the schools are going to jump in front of cameras like this and say that. I think you’re going to continue to see volatility because of those two things.”

On not making as many home visits for recruiting this year and if that’s something he will miss

“I do. I miss it. It’s a really difficult time because you’re balancing that, you’re balancing anything going on, like last year at this time we were getting ready to hire a whole defensive staff, you’re getting ready for a bowl game, your own roster. I understand why they did it and I think there are good reasons. Do you miss part of it? Sure you do. To go sit down with people or go in their homes and be able to go to school and sit down and have some of these conversations face to face, we’re all used to doing it. So for all of us that have been in it for a while, it’s pretty unique.”

On the turning point for the USC offensive line to play better

“Probably Michigan. Probably Michigan. I feel like since then we’ve been on a pretty steady incline the entire way. That group hasn’t gotten a break. We’ve played good groups. When this season ends, you look back at the defensive rankings of the teams that we played and there is some stuff like relative scoring and all that will be pretty interesting stats because when you don’t play free layups in non-conference and when you play in a conference with the defenses we do, we haven’t played any bad defenses. We play against a lot of good individual defensive linemen and defensive lines. I think we battled. I think that’s battle-tested us. We’ve gotten better, stuck with it. I think the leadership from Coach [Josh] Hensen, from Jonah [Monheim], from Emanuel [Pregnon] and seeing some of these young guys grow up and get better and take some of these challenges and really rise up to them, I think it’s a combination of all that. I think it’s been key especially here as of late.”

On if he feels good about the trajectory of the USC offensive line

“I do. Some of it is what you see on Saturdays and some of it is what you see on the practice field. We just did a developmental period right before you guys came out here and we got a lot of good-looking young linemen that are talented and going to be good players. It’s been a while, probably well before I was here, where that was the case. You’re starting to see a couple year’s worth of work, recruiting and development out here. The fans and everyone sees it on Saturday, but there are a lot of exciting things happening behind the scenes. Kind of like with [Elijah] Paige and [indiscernible name] and some of those guys last year, what was happening. I think there are a lot of guys who are going to be big-time players for us and depth and what has a chance to be championship-caliber depth for us.”

On if he needs to recruit differently offensive talent to adjust to the defenses in the Big Ten

“Hard to say right now. It’s something that’s going to depend on what’s going to happen with our current roster. We have some guys who obviously have decisions to make on if they go pro and stay and play another year. Not a ton, but we got some guys with that decision. We’ll see. We’re going to try to get the right talent in here. We’re going to try to continue to build these position groups, especially o-line and tight end that we’ve really tried to revamp in our time here. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made and we’re excited about what’s there in the future. Whatever it’s gotta be.

“Sure, you always want to bring in talent. At what positions and where do you need it to be successful? I’m comfortable being successful with whatever it takes, whatever personnel groupings it is, however we play. That doesn’t even matter to me. I just want to do what’s best. That’s how we’ve always viewed it and I think that’s why we’ve been pretty multiple through the years and we’ll have to continue to adapt and adjust like we always have.”

On the Notre Dame vs. USC rivalry and how significant it is this year

“I think it’s always an important game. It’s a rivalry game. There is a lot of history behind it. It’s two great programs. It’s obviously another one that’s played in iconic places. I just think when you come here, the history behind this game is epic. It just is. Number one, I think it would be disrespectful to not be as ready as you possibly can be. Coaches, players, everybody.

“The fact for us, obviously it’s our last game in the Coliseum. We got a lot of great Trojans on this team where it will be their last game. We got a chance to close this three-game stretch at the end of the season. It’s a phenomenal opportunity to finish this thing the way we intend finishing it.

“I love it. I love rivalry games. Can’t wait for it to get here.”