Lincoln Riley's comments after USC's 50-49 win against Cal

USC head coach Lincoln Riley opened with a lengthy opening statement following the Trojans’ 50-49 win against Cal in a game in which USC led by 10 in the first quarter and trailed by 14 in the fourth. It featured a pregame protest and a halftime situation that saw USC run the final play of the first half after the 20-minutes halftime festivities concluded. And it featured four lead-changes and a game-winning defensive play with less than a minute remaining.

Lincoln Riley opening statement:

“That was a wild one,” Riley said sitting down to his postgame press conference. “Still processing a little bit. Just got done with the guys. Awesome, awesome comeback. You bring them up there at the beginning of the fourth quarter. And it’s, you’ve played very spotty all day and you’ve got to go summon it. Not only down, but I think they have the ball down pretty low there, too.

And so obviously that was I think a key point for us. Kind of with all that we’ve been through here last few weeks. Had to persevere through a lot. Had to overcome a lot. And regardless of what happened good or bad in those first three quarters, this time you’re on the road, there’s nowhere to hide, you gotta go find a way to win it . And we did. And we did it even despite some mistakes there in the fourth quarter.

And so I’m very appreciative of their fight, guys mentally staying in it, made some tremendous game-changing plays. With the way that the game unfolded, it became such a high-possession game. It was a lot different than some of these ones we played in. They played fast, offensively. We had a couple of big plays, offensively. There were some quick turnovers or three-and-outs. And so it was one of those games that you could tell pretty early, it was probably going to be pretty high-possession. And so with those, typically, you get kind of your wild twists and turns. And obviously, this delivered on plenty of that.

And the guys battled. We still went through some of our roles, obviously, on both sides of the ball. We were typically able to cover the other side up, which has become, I think, a strength of this team right now. Kind of seems like when one side is not going on, the other finds a way to kind of keep it together and make plays and keep us in these things. Obviously, for us, you know, striving here towards the end of being able to play more complimentary ball where we can get some of those surges. We’ve had a few but I think that’s the number one thing going forward for us is we’ve got to play more complementary ball where we can get on those runs and have a bunch of points in a row and hold people several stops in a row.

Because if you don’t — and kind of like we’re playing right now — you’re gonna be in these tight games, right? It’s kind of back and forth, and you’re gonna be in these games, and they’re gonna swing on a of couple of plays like the last three weeks have. And that’s not a horrible position to be in. We were in a position to win all of them. But obviously, we want to play better.

And so we obviously got to do that. But I’m really, really damn proud of the group. They could have folded there in the fourth quarter. The last two weeks, things haven’t went our way — some within our control, some not within our control. And to step up here on the road against a team coming off a bye week and had some obvious momentum at times during the game, and go find a way to get this sucker done, was huge.

Excited to get back, to get to work. There’s a lot to build on. There’s a lot that needs to improve. And if we keep practicing like we have here the last couple of weeks, then we’ll continue to get better. We will.

I want to give a lot of credit to Cal. I thought they had a great plan. They did a good job taking advantage of the bye week. They brought out a few new things that we had to adjust to and a few things that gave us trouble on both sides of the ball. So give them credit; they made some really nice plays. They did. Justin (Wilcox) has done a really good job. We knew coming in, they had our ultimate respect because really, the Washington game for them, was kind of fluky, kind of got some separation early in that game and then they battled the rest away and then they’ve had a chance to win every single other game. They scored a bunch of points here against Oregon State who we know in our league has done a really good job defensively. They’ve had some bright moments offensively and had chance to beat Utah last week, probably should have beat Auburn here. I mean they’re a good football team. Justin’s done a good job. We knew it’d be a challenge coming in and if we didn’t play clean, we knew it would be a dogfight and it certainly was.

Obviously, happy to come out with a win and excited to go back to work with this team and get better. We sit here right now 5-1 and firmly in second place in probably the most deep conference in college football and some fun opportunities ahead that we’re very much looking forward to.”

On whether he believes he can win a Pac-12 Title with the way the USC defense is playing right now:

“I believe this team can win this league. Hell yeah I do. Hell yeah I do. I know it can. We gotta go do it. We got we got some some fun, exciting challenges ahead coming up. We know that. But yeah, I do. This team’s good is definitely good enough to beat anybody. We’re not getting our good consistently enough to play well enough to separate in some of these games. And we got to all band together. We got to all keep pounding the rock. We can all keep getting better because it’s there. And some of our mistakes, it kind of frustrates you slash like — not confuses you — it’s just, the good is so good. And some of the stretches offensively, some of the stretches defensively are just outright dominant. And then, you know, there’s one thing when, you know, listen, a guy makes a really good competitive play, or makes a great run, or they you know, do something that tricks you a little bit either side. That happens sometimes in games, both ways. Our guys, obviously we try to recruit guys that can do that to other people, too. We’re still making way too many self-inflicted errors. I mean, a couple of runs that popped in the first half are prime examples. I mean, and Eric Gentry was phenomenal today, but I mean, his penalty at the end. I mean, just some of the — we had some busted assignments, offensively. Obviously, we had, you know, a big turnover right after the defensive had gotten a turnover.

There’s still too many self-inflicted wounds and you can’t have that. We gotta get better at it. You got to keep working at it. You got to keep teaching these guys. You got to keep showing them, ‘Hey, when you do your job, and when you do what you’re coached to do, we’re getting it by and large pretty damn good results.’ And we’ve got to stay true to that. We’ve got some work to do here. But can we do it? Damn right we can…

Momentum, this high competition, man, it’s a funny thing. And sometimes one little spark, and you get going, and you get that momentum, especially when it’s so competitive and the margins are so thin, like they are in college football, like they are in this conference right now. So the good’s really good. The bad has to get better. Own it. It is what it is. It has to get better. But it can get better. And if we keep fighting the way we fought today, it will get better.”

Riley on whether a change in scheme or personnel will need to be made if the defensive struggles continue:

“I’m gonna try to beat Washington next week. Those are my thoughts. That’s my job is to get this team ready, that’s sitting 5-1 in the best conference in America and try to go win it. That’s where my focus is. The reality is, are there areas where we have to be better defensively? Of course there is. But the flip side of that is, you know, offensively, you can’t sit there and put them in bad positions. We can’t give up another couple of kickoffs where we put them in terrible field position, or some three and outs. The turnover there at the end is the perfect example. Defense, they do their job, they get the offensive turnover, and then one frickin play and they’re right back out there with terrible field position. That’s not bad defense. That’s bad offense. That’s bad team football. And that’s some of what we have. Are there some things that defensively that have to get better for us to do it? Yeah, there’s some things offensively that have to get better. There’s some things on special teams that have to get better. That’s the ebbs and flows of the season. Week to week, you never know. If I told you last week that Washington is going to win a game at home and not score an offensive touchdown, you wouldn’t have believed me. Everybody would have said, ‘They’re the this and this offense in the country.’ That’s every week, man. There’s a lot of parody. There’s a lot of back and forth and you’ve got to find a way to get it done. So hopefully we can keep finding a way to get it done. And with the fight we showed today, I wouldn’t count us out.”