Lincoln Riley reveals Gino Quinones will miss season
There is some bad news coming out of Los Angeles, CA, as the USC Trojans prepare for their conference opener against the Stanford Cardinal in Week 2. According to Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley, Trojans senior offensive lineman Gino Quinones, has been lost for the remainder of the season.
Riley made the announcement on Tuesday during the USC headman’s media availability.
“Tough news on Gino: lower leg injury,” said Riley. “He will miss the rest of the season. Hate it for him. He has really done an outstanding job becoming part of our rotation, (and) a valuable member.
“He’s in good spirits. He’s gonna fight back, get him fixed up, and look forward to having him come back. He’s gonna be a big part of the future offensive line of the teams here. But unfortunately, just won’t be on the field here for the rest of the season. So I need some other guys to step up, and we look forward to those guys doing so.”
Quinones was one of the essential offensive linemen in charge of protecting Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams. In USC’s Week 0 contest against San Jose State, he was primarily lined up at right guard, where he played 42 offensive snaps. The following week, against Nevada, Quinones split time with Emmanuel Pregnon at left guard. Unfortunately, he did not play much against the Wolfpack as he suffered his season-ending injury in the first quarter of the Trojans’ victory when Williams connected with Tahj Washington for a 22-yard touchdown.
If fans need somewhere to look for optimism with Quinones’ injury situation, they only need to look at the other side of the ball at linebacker. Despite losing some players due to injury, Riley was presently pleased with USC’s linebacker play against Nevada.
Mason Cobb and Eric Gentry don’t have long term injuries, according to Riley. That had nothing to do with Nevada either, Riley simply said both linebackers weren’t ready to go full speed for a game.
But, USC had solid linebacker play in place of two important cogs to the unit.
“I thought guys stepped up,” Riley said. “Shane Lee stepped up and played well. Raesjon (Davis) stepped up and played well. Tackett (Curtis) was doing some really nice things before the ejection. I thought the guys really stepped up and communicated.
“You saw the run defense was really stout all night. Really, we gave up two fade balls. You don’t discount those; those can’t happen. We have to get better than that, but played pretty clean football.”
Lee finished with five total tackles and a sack, highlighting the day from the linebacker group. Davis was in on four total tackles, including one solo, and Curtis managed to assist on two tackles.
On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this article