Lincoln Riley on win vs Oregon State: ‘We found a way’

Lincoln Riley in his first year at USC faced an early test when the Trojans traveled to Oregon State. A well-coached team in a tough environment pushed USC to its limit. After a long honeymoon phase, this was a challenge that caught some people off guard. In particular, the team’s offensive struggles, only scoring 17 points, were surprising.

While speaking to the media in his postgame press conference, Lincoln Riley was asked if wins like the one over Oregon State were more meaningful.

“100 percent,” Lincoln Riley replied. “Because, you know, if everything’s rolling and you separate, I mean, that’s awesome and we’d love for that to happen every week, but that’s not college football.”

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“It doesn’t happen like that all the time, and you either, you know, how many times do you see a really good team go in and get upset or beat in a tough road atmosphere like tonight? I mean, it happens all the time, but that’s where you separate yourself,” Lincoln Riley continued.

“The really great teams find a way no matter what the circumstances [are], and we found a way tonight.”

USC’s next test comes at home against Arizona State, who has already fired their coach, Herm Edwards.

Lincoln Riley is on high alert against Arizona State

USC faced a challenge against Oregon State. Now, against the struggling Arizona State Sun Devils, it would be easy to look past them at teams like Washington State and Utah. However, Lincoln Riley wants to avoid this.

“It can, it certainly can, unfortunately, that’s one of the tougher parts about college football and nobody likes to see it. But we I think all recognize that’s just part of how it is right now, I’ve been in a few situations where we’ve had an opponent like this, and yeah it can,” Lincoln Riley said.

“I think you gotta be ready, you’ve got an opponent that a lot of times you switch some staff responsibilities around, different head man in charge, maybe different parameters of what they’re doing. So I think you certainly have to be on high alert for anything that could change.”