Lincoln Riley breaks down how experience with Kyler Murray helps USC with Duce Robinson

Incoming USC tight end Duce Robinson was a massive early splash in the recruiting waters for Lincoln Riley. Robinson is a five-star football prospect and has already been picked in the MLB Draft — however, he’s coming out to LA to play football anyway. But he’ll also be playing baseball for the Trojans. Not to worry, though. After helping Kyler Murray navigate the two-sport waters at Oklahoma, Riley and his staff are better equipped to handle a player with feet in both ponds.

At his media availability this week, Riley gave an in-depth explanation of the in’s and out’s USC will have to handle with Robinson. The USC head coach even admits he mishandled Murray’s situation in his first year before helping lead him to a tremendous second season in both sports. He won the Heisman Trophy and was the top pick in the NFL Draft after already being picked ninth overall in the MLB Draft — with the non-guarantee that he’d play.

Just a special player. While Duce Robinson shouldn’t be held to those standards, Lincoln Riley is just using Murray as an example of how to correctly handle a two-sport athlete on the team. You can read his full comments on the issue right here:

Lincoln Riley explains nuances of handling two-sport athletes

“I’d have a hard time describing it to you, honestly, because it’s so unique. And, you know, there’s there’s two things. I mean, like you can be a head coach at a Division I football program that allows a player to go try to play another sport. It can you help facilitate and put together a plan that helps them potentially excel at both.

“And there is a lot to that more than I than I ever realized and I thought we, the first year with Kyler, I thought we kind of botched it, to be completely honest, in a few key areas. And, you know, he was the backup quarterback that year. And then I thought we learned a lot from that year, and as a staff, I think we grew. We got much better kind of idea of what we did right, what we did wrong. We made some key adjustments kind of in the work area of scheduling and rest and recovery and communication.

“Because now, you know, with these athletes, there’s a ton of communication that goes on, because they work with so many people. Well, now double the amount of sports right like now add a whole other sport to the mix like, it’s just a lot. It becomes almost like a full-time job.

“Well, I thought we were much more prepared in year two. And then, obviously, you know, things went pretty good on the baseball diamond. He goes No. 9 overall and then, you know, football obviously did what he did. And so, I think having some of that experience with Kyler will help us.

“That we ought to be off to a much quicker start with Duce. Well, probably a little bit less of a rough draft and got an idea of what the finished product will look like. We’ll make a few tweaks along the way. But yeah, excited about it and we’ve been able to work with Andy and those guys in baseball already with us and over there.”