Everything Lincoln Riley said following USC's 27-20 win against LSU

USC head coach Lincoln Riley spoke to the media following the Trojans’ 27-20 win against No. 13 LSU on Sunday night. Here’s everything Riley said.

Riley opening statement

“Just an awesome team win. Great environment in there. Great stadium. Great opponent. Two teams really went at it, kind of traded blows the entire game. Was proud of our guys because we had some missed opportunities as a football team. It felt like for a while we were outplaying them a little bit more than what the scoreboard looked like. We had a couple chances offensively. Thought we had a pretty good chance to pick the touchdown ball down there in our endzone, defensively. But our guys were resilient. They kept battling. Was proud with a lot of new players on both sides. Obviously the massive changes defensively. I was just really proud of how hard and how well we played. How much we trusted it. And then when there was adversity, we didn’t panic as a football team. We kept grinding and we were a tough, gritty, physical team that got it done in the end. That was a fun game. Hats off to LSU. Looks like they’re a really good football team this year. No surprise. But proud of our guys for getting a win. Looking forward to getting back to LA. It’ll be fun to get back to LA, be fun to get in the Coliseum for our first home game. I’m sure our fans are pretty excited right now, pretty juiced up, as they should be. Looking forward to getting home game No. 1.”

Riley on what the win says about the ongoing rebuild at USC

“I don’t coach for the media. I don’t coach for headlines. We just try to do what’s best in our program. We try to stay incredibly committed to it regardless of what anybody says on the outside. Whether they agree with us or don’t agree with us is honestly irrelevant to us. We know what we’ve been building. We’re very confident with the approach that we’re taking, with the people that we’re putting in our program — players, staff, everyone. I just know, I’m not the most experienced guy but I have been through a couple of these and I have a decent idea of what pretty good looks like. I know we’re making progress. It was fun to get the win today. Opportunities like this don’t come every single day — high-profile opponent, all the exciting lead up to the game — so I’m glad that we took advantage of it. But regardless of what happened today, it’s still not going to change what we’re building and a thing we’re doing. We’re just so committed to it. Nothing’s going to change it. We’re just going to keep getting better and I’m proud of us for taking this step and getting this opportunity done today.”

Riley on what message this win sends

“That was some pretty good Big Ten football today. I don’t know. We’re just not into it for messages, man. My message is I really like my team. I like our team. I like our defense, I like our coaches, I like our offense, I like our special teams, I like the vibe of this team. It’s a long, long ways to go, but I’m sure glad I’m coaching these guys.”

On what made him most proud of the USC defense

“We battled all game long. We didn’t give up too many explosives. We had the one coverage bust there at the end, but then we had to get some big stops there. The ones that I really point to — we had the initial goal line stop and then after the 4th-and-8 that we didn’t convert offensively, that was a key moment right there. They had a chance to go up two scores. We get the stop there and then even after the explosive on the last drive, we find a way. We stop them, we hold them to a field goal. You can bring in really good coaches, which we did. You can run whatever scheme that you want to run. But at the end of the day, these guys have to trust and believe in it. We brought in some outstanding players like Kamari that have just really helped us grab hold of this defense early on. And then we’ve got a lot of guys that were in the locker room before that are incredibly hungry to go play USC defense. There’s a vibe and a confidence about that group right now and we’re only going to get better. Really proud of the effort tonight. I’m not surprised, but it was cool to see in that moment in that arena, us believe in it as much as we did.”

Riley on the final touchdown from Woody Marks

“I knew he was going to score. It’s weird, I kind of had a — We were certainly trying to get some more yards and position us for a field goal if he didn’t pop it. Having the timeout, we knew we could be a little bit aggressive there. It’s funny, I had a flashback, the last OU – Texas game there was a very similar situation. We were a little bit farther out and we handed a ball off and it popped. I remember I had just a little flashback and I told somebody on the headsets, ‘It wouldn’t surprise me if he just creases this.’ And of course it happens. It was awesome. It was blocked up well. Great run by Woody. He was a warrior for us tonight and awesome to be able to finish it that way.”

Riley on whether this game can impact recruiting

“It can. I haven’t turned it on yet but it’ll buzz for a while when I do. I think it can because you’ve got recruits that are looking towards the future and they see the changes that we’ve made, not just this year but in the last couple years. TO see those changes come together and see the team — not just win the game — but play the way we did. You know what I mean? I’m sure anybody watching that game could see a team that was pretty together and a team that was really fighting and was playing some pretty darn good football in a lot of spurts. I think it’s an exciting game when you get a stage like that, which is rare in college football. You got one day, there’s no NFL games, there’s not much going on. This was kind of our day here on one of the biggest stages. To show up like that, I know there was a lot of people watching.”

Riley on the confidence USC had in being able to stop the run

“We did a good job. It’s a really good offensive line, no question. Several guys on that offensive line are going to play ball for a little while. They had every right to be confident, but so did we. We just chose not to say it in the media. We were very confident in our ability to do it. It was a physical battle. There were a lot of big shots down on that field from both sides. We did a great job, I thought, condensing their run game — squeezing them to where there wasn’t a bunch of huge, open gaps. They got out a couple of times on us but we made it tough on them. I thought we played physical at the point of attack. Guys were pretty gap sound. We were able to squeeze down some of those running lanes and make open-field tackles. Against a good running team like that, that’s what it’s all about.”

Riley on Miller Moss late in the game

“I’ve got a lot of belief in him. I have a lot of belief in our players, a lot of belief in Miller and his understanding of not just our system but the way we want to play. I feel like we’re very much in sync in a lot of ways. He’s a tough competitor. That’s what he’s proven. He’s a tough competitor that loves his team and he’s a great leader for this team. And we’ve got a lot of guys like that in our locker room right now. When you do that, then you tend to have moments like this.”

Riley on the final offensive drive of the first half

“Moved it down there. We were a little bit in-between there at the end if we were going to take a shot of not. But we felt Woody was running well at that point. We popped a couple of runs. We thought the run gave us a chance to crease it and if not, would help us from a field goal standpoint. We just didn’t hit a good ball on the field goal. But Mike came back and hit a couple big kicks for us and obviously the last kickoff was huge. I mean huge. It was a good drive. Probably some things we could go back and do better. Was one of those opportunities that we missed that I talked about in the opening statement. But found a way and got it done.”