Lincoln Riley misses 2nd-straight practice due to illness

USC head coach Lincoln Riley, who has been absent from various program activities this week with an illness, missed practice on Tuesday, per the school. It was his second-straight practice missed, according to Antonio Morales of The Athletic.

Riley is at home and recovering under doctors orders, per Morales. In his stead, assistant head coach and passing game coordinator Dennis Simmons is serving as acting head coach.

Already this week, Riley has missed a pair of practice and a regular appearance on a team radio show while dealing with the undisclosed illness.

USC is also reportedly working with the compliance office to make Kliff Kingsbury — on staff as an analyst — an acting assistant coach while the Trojans are down their head coach, Morales added.

Riley still has optimism for the rest of the season for USC despite back-to-back losses

Riley isn’t ready to throw in the towel for the remainder of USC’s season. The Trojans dropped their second straight game, but have plenty to play for.

The College Football Playoff may be out of reach, but things can still happen to get USC to the Pac-12 title game and a New Year’s Six Bowl. Riley said the team simply has to play better.

If they do play better, they still control most of their destiny.

“Our fight cannot be questioned,” Riley said. “We got to play better, we realize that. Also important for us to take stock of, you know, we still sit in the very advantageous position in this conference. We got some big opportunities coming up, there’s a lot left that’s going to happen and if we continue to fight and prepare the way that we did this week, we’ll have our chances.

“So we gotta gotta get past it. Gotta get on to the next one.” 

USC turns right around and takes on Cal on the road this weekend. Then the brutal stretch comes: home versus No. 5 Washington, at No. 8 Oregon and home versus No. 23 UCLA.

“This is when you get tested as a program, you get tested as a coach and a leader. you get tested, all the staff members, all the players in there, it’s how committed are you to what we’re building and in this toughest time in November,” Riley said. “(This is) one of the tougher times that we’ve had here in a few years … And that was our challenge to the guys in the locker room. I believe in the young men, we have a in there, the staff members that we have in there, I very much believe in how we’ll respond. We’ll get the chance to define it. And that’s the beautiful thing about this game.”