Lincoln Riley says Raleek Brown has 'done well' in transition to receiver

USC head coach Lincoln Riley is a master at getting his best players the ball in opportune situations. Last season true freshman running back Raleek Brown showed a knack for making big plays in the Trojans’ offense. Unfortunately for him, he was stuck behind a shuffle of running backs.

So to allow the now sophomore an opportunity to do more in his offense, Riley has been working him out at wide receiver.

And during a recent interview, the Trojans’ head man explained that the experiment is going well so far, with Brown showing much improvement in the process.

“He’s done well,” said Riley. “He had to miss seven or eight practices in the middle; he had just gotten back off of a soft tissue injury. And so, that stunted it a little bit. We planned to do a little bit more with him, but given that he missed essentially half of spring, we decided just to kind of focus in on some of the perimeter work and some of the receiver work. Which we did a little bit within last year; wanted to do a little bit more this spring. And ended up doing that the majority of spring. Whereas, I think the plan was to get him in the backfield and do a little bit of all of it. And we didn’t quite get there.”

More on Raleek Brown at wide receiver

Last season as a true freshman, Brown received a number of opportunities to show off what he could do for the Trojans then and for years to come. Overall he finished the year fourth in rushing yards for the Trojans despite nearly one-third fewer touches than all three running backs ahead of him.

Brown finished the year with 42 attempts for 227 yards and three touchdowns. But he also proved he had some impressive hands as well. Brown went on to catch 16 passes for 175 yards for another three touchdowns bringing his freshman season total to six.

“Obviously, his experience in the backfield from last year is still certainly there and extremely valuable going forward,” said Riley. “It was good to really kind of coach put him up on the perimeter and really kind of focus our work there. And I think he rapidly improved (with) skill set and understanding of how to play out there well versus maybe just doing one or two things out there, like we did with him last year. So, I think he’s really improved. He’s going to have to stay healthy and he’s gonna have to continue to grow in his overall knowledge of the offense because you wanna do all that stuff with the guy. But he’s got to be able to do it and function at a high level, and he’s certainly capable of it.”

It’s hard to quantify the possibilities of what Brown could do in a Lincoln Riley-engineered offense. But with the head coach now working him at receiver, it only adds more depth and versatility to his game. That could mean in 2023, Brown could be the most unstoppable player on USC’s offense. An offense that already includes Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams.