What USC coach Lincoln Riley said after the Trojans beat Notre Dame
USC is one win away from punching a ticket to the College Football Playoff, something Notre Dame has done twice in the CFP’s existence. Saturday night, the No. 6 Trojans secured one of their best victories of the season in taking care of No. 15 Notre Dame 38-27 at the LA Memorial Coliseum.
Here’s what USC head coach Lincoln Riley had to say after his first experience in the USC vs. Notre Dame rivalry, a Trojans win that snapped a four-game losing streak to the Fighting Irish.
Opening statement
“Great win. It’s fun seeing the Coliseum like that. Sitting up there at that press conference almost close to 12 months ago just imagining that, and these guys have brought it to life. I don’t know how long it’s been since it was like that. I haven’t been here before, but man it was electric in there. That’s kind of what I remember watching as a young kid, and to see the Coliseum like that and see our team playing the way we did — we played really well on all three sides of the ball.”
On the USC defense
“Defensively, I also kind of got sick and tired of hearing how we were just gonna get pounded in the run game. That didn’t happen. Really proud of the way we stopped the run, tackled, caused turnovers and made big plays. I thought we played really well defensively.”
“Phenomenal job tonight. Really physical line of scrimmage. We did a good job not letting them get out very often at all in the run game. We got pressure on the quarterback, made some competitive plays in the throw game. Obviously the pick. We just played a pretty complete football game defensively. We talked to our guys a lot about the gap of where we’re at versus what we’re capable of, and we took some steps to close that gap tonight.”
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On his immediate takeaways after beating Notre Dame
“Proud of the guys. Proud of the way we finished, separating from a really, really good football team that in the last several weeks had been on a really good run and had a lot of momentum coming in here. I told the guys in the locker room it’s been a tremendous run, but there’s obviously a lot more left out there for us. We’re excited about this, as we should be, but we’ve got a quick week. We’re planning a conference championship game here in six days, so we’ve got to enjoy it but put it to bed here quickly and get ready to head to Vegas.”
On USC’s turnaround from 4-8 last season to 11-1 this season
“You just go to work, and you start putting it together as fast as you can and start building the culture as fast as you can. I can’t say ‘Yes, I knew this was gonna happen,’ but at the same time I don’t believe in putting limits on what you can accomplish. Especially if you get the right people in the building and everybody decides to be unselfish and work hard for each other. That’s what this group has done. They’re a great example of when you do that, the worst thing you could ever do is put limits on what you can accomplish.
“You guys know me, I stood right by what I told you our expectations were from day one. A lot of people thought I was crazy, and that’s fine. People within the walls knew what we were about and I think had a sense of what we were building, and it’s been a fun run.”
