6-0 Is Just a Start for Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans

The USC Trojans are sitting at 6-0 and the No. 7 team in the country just half a season into the Lincoln Riley era. It feels like a million miles from where the Trojans found themselves through six games a year ago. That USC team was 3-3, without a permanent head coach, and recovering from a 42-26 beating at the hands of the Utah Utes. But Riley and the Trojans know they haven’t achieved anything yet.

“It’s great, but it is just a start,” Riley said of the six wins following Tuesday’s practice. “It’s not a guarantee to anything.”

Riley said he’s proud of everything the Trojans needed to pour into those six wins. But looking at all the teams still undefeated, he knows they can still go in several different directions.

“There’ll be some that finish really well, some that finish okay, and some that don’t finish very good,” Riley said. “It’ll be a challenging second half of the season. But this is when it gets the most fun. This is what you do it for. Put yourself in a great position, now it’s time to go accelerate and be our best.”

While the game against the Utes in 2021 finished the first half of that season with a resounding thud. The game against Utah this season presents the opportunity to springboard USC to a tremendous close to the 2022 campaign.

Riley was asked after Tuesday’s practice what it will take from the Trojans to win six more games this season.

“Just six?” Riley said with a laugh. “That’ll get quoted. Oh boy. Everybody calm down.”

On To Utah

The truth is that the Trojans have to have more than six more wins in the back of their minds after the way they’ve started the season. But none of those matter as much as the one they’ll try to get Saturday. Not only is this simply just the next game up on the schedule. It’s clearly the toughest game the Trojans will have played to date. Utah knows its Pac-12 life could be on the line. And it’ll be a blackout in Salt Lake City.

Riley said he believes the team is prepared to handle this road environment better than they did Corvallis. The Oregon State fans and atmosphere made life difficult for USC. Riley also said the Trojans have to play at a different level each week.

“We’ve got to get better,” Riley said of looking forward. “The target moves. What’s good enough Week One is not good enough Week Three, is not good enough Week Seven, not good enough Week Nine. Other people that you play, you’ve got to expect their best and expect that they’re going to get better. You can’t say, well, this was enough to get these and so it’s going to be enough to do that, because that’s just not the nature of it.”

Riley echoed the comments made by several of the offensive players following recent games. He said he believes there’s “a lot more in the tank with these guys.” The USC coaches will do whatever they can to get the most out of the Trojans this weekend. Riley said he hopes to maintain the team culture and team chemistry they’ve displayed so far. Now it’s about kicking the overall performance up every week.

“I think we have got to not get too happy and satisfied,” Riley said. “We have got to continue to accelerate and push and get better and the guys have got to keep responding. If we do that, we’ll give ourselves a chance every time we step on the field.”