Lincoln Riley not focused on bulletin-board material vs. Colorado
Colorado has been in the midst of some serious trash-talking throughout the 2023 season. Some of the discussion comes via Deion Sanders, their own head coach. Last week against Oregon though, Dan Lanning was the one dishing out some bulletin-board material. Unfortunately for Colorado, the Ducks backed their words up and put together an old-fashioned butt-kicking in Eugene.
At least early in the week, USC does not seem too interested in any back and forth. head coach Lincoln Riley is looking to stay away from any back and forth with Colorado. The focus for Riley is on his own team, saying they need to take care of business.
Doing anything else would be a disservice to the program. Oregon may have had their ways to get motivated to play Colorado but USC is going to be taking a different approach.
“We just try to continue to be ourselves and keep our sound approach,” Riley said. “We haven’t been focused on opponents or any of the outside things. To each their own. We’ve got to stay focused. We’ve gotten plenty of things that we’ve got to get better at and be ready to handle. If any of our focus is going anywhere else, that’s not the best thing for USC.”
Riley is correct about having some things they need to be ready to handle. Despite the performance against Oregon, Colorado does still have a potent offense, ready to score at will. Alex Grinch‘s defenses have not been totally inspiring thus far, proven against Arizona State with USC still having a ball game in the fourth quarter.
Shedeur Sanders is going to be ready to go and will be hoping for a major bounce-back game. Potentially getting back home will settle the offense back down. But from USC’s end, they are not going to let their words give Colorado any kind of extra motivation ahead of the game.
Maybe there will be an opportunity for some talking to happen before the game. Colorado had some words for Colorado State and Oregon during pregame warmups. Even Nebraska caused some issues by standing on the midfield logo. Two of those three games wound up resulting in wins for the Buffaloes.
But at least leading up to the game, Riley is staying away. Everything USC is doing leading up to the 10 a.m. MT kickoff will be focused on preparing to make USC better.