USC football coach Lincoln Riley was more than excited about his team’s response to its mistakes in the Trojans’ 28-20 home victory Saturday against Nebraska.
“That was an awesome win. Awesome win. Team was incredibly resilient the entire day. I thought our effort and attitude, physicality really showed up, I thought, on both sides of the ball,” Riley said after the game. “We made some mistakes where I think we had some opportunities to separate, but just super proud of really the very end — the last drive offensively and then closing the door defensively there at the end was tremendous.
Riley was also complimentary of his special teams unit, crediting his punter for a job well done against the Cornhuskers to pin Nebraska’s struggling offense deep in its own territory routinely.
“What a great job Eddie Czaplicki has done for us. I mean he has been probably the best punter in the country up to this point, just how consistent he’s been, how great our punt team has been,” Riley said. “I thought the field position battle was huge on the day.”
The former Oklahoma and now-Trojan coach reiterated that he was impressed by USC’s composure to overcome early mistakes – including new starting quarterback Jayden Maiava’s first-quarter interception.
“Some big-time plays in key moments, and yeah, just proud of the guys. Especially when we start with the pick-6 and sometimes deals like that, especially at home, can take the air out of your sails a little bit. And the team didn’t even flinch and we responded well, and to come back and win it was awesome. So, proud of the guys,” Riley said.
Riley added that Maiava remained “in the moment” despite his mistakes, including a fumble later in the contest that Nebraska recovered deep in USC territory.
“He gave guys opportunities to make plays really throughout the game, so no, I thought he showed some poise. And you can tell he’s played some college ball,” Riley said of Maiava. “But I know he was excited, nervous, all of that for his first opportunity to really play here at USC, and I thought he handled it well. Especially when you start off like that, that’s like the last thing you want to happen. And his response and the team’s response was obviously very key.”
The critical juncture in the late stretch of the fourth quarter came on a fourth-and-inches in Nebraska territory with USC holding onto a one-point lead. Riley was asked about the play call and the decision to keep the ball on the ground with USC’s leading running back, Woody Marks.
“We felt like it was something that we could execute. We’ve worked it a lot behind the scenes, haven’t ran it much this year, but yeah, we got a good look, we executed it, Jayden and Woody did a good job, the line blocked, we had a really good on the perimeter — I think it was Kyron in there — so yeah, we knew we wanted to be aggressive in that moment and the guys did a great job executing it,” Riley said.
Riley added that Marks was “a little bit under the weather” despite finishing with 150 rushing yards on 19 attempts and six receptions for 36 yards. The coach was satisfied with the Trojans’ rushing attack against the vaunted Blackshirt defense – especially its defensive line.
“Obviously, they’re one of the best run defenses in the country, a tremendous D-line, so I thought we did a pretty nice job running the ball offensively most of the day. We were pretty consistent, Riley said. “I thought defensively we did a nice job especially in some of the key moments. We had a couple that got out, but we were able to get them on the ground, which was key, and not give up the big explosive. So we knew that was going to important against a team that traditionally does a great job of both.”
With the victory, USC improved to 5-5 overall and 3-5 in Big Ten Conference play. The Trojans will have two chances to reach bowl eligibility, at UCLA on Saturday and at home against Notre Dame on Nov. 30.
Listen to Riley’s full comments from the victory over Nebraska.
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