What Lincoln Riley said after coaching his first game at USC

You want to know what Lincoln Riley thought of his first game as #USC head coach. We’ll pass along some of the notable things he said.

All of the buzz around the USC Trojans football team over the past 10 months finally reached the big stage on Saturday afternoon.

Lincoln Riley answered the call perfectly with a 66-14 victory over Rice at the Coliseum. It was a wonderful — if hot — afternoon in Los Angeles, and after a disappointing four-win campaign in 2021 (one that felt neverending), all of that is in the past after Riley’s first victory as USC head coach.

If 4-8 was a disappointment last year, 8-4 will feel like a disappointment this year, given the riches USC has on offense. One can see how high USC’s ceiling might become, but the story of Week 1 is that the floor is already far higher than at any point in the Helton era, save the Sam Darnold years.

There are a ton of takeaways from this game, including the batch of pick-sixes from the defense (which were literally takeaways). After the game, Lincoln Riley addressed reporters and issued a number of interesting quotes after his first game wearing the USC visor.