No. 18 Michigan defeated No. 11 USC by a score of 27-24 at the Big House on Saturday in a game that came down to the final minute.
Here is everything USC head coach Lincoln Riley had to say following his team's defeat.
On how his team feels after the program's first Big Ten game
"I felt it was two good football teams going at it. Of course, as competitors, you're disappointed. We gave ourselves an opportunity to win a football game—that doesn't happen a whole lot here (at the Big House). I thought we put ourselves in position, but you've got to finish it, you've got to make some of those plays at the end. Disappointed we didn't make it. Disappointed but certainly not defeated, excited to get back to our (next game)."
On Riley's assessment of his team's offensive line
"It's a good opponent, and obviously when you play in an atmosphere like that there's obvious challenges. They got some momentum early defensively. We made a couple of lineup changes there and I thought we handled it pretty well and we got to where we were moving it pretty good. It's a good group. We made some mistakes, some of our young guys came in there and made a few mistakes. We just got beat one-on-one a couple times, they have some pretty good players and that's going to happen. But it was a good battle in there. I thought we hung in there and fought, but we have to work to get better."
On why Riley is confident his team can respond to the loss
"The players and coaches in the locker room (are why he is confident). The fight that you saw here gives me complete confidence."
On the second to last drive of the game for USC that went three-and-out and whether he second guesses those play calls
"Yeah, I could do better. I don't think I called a very good drive there."
On how his team reacted to the physicality of the game
"I don't want to make a bunch of big picture assessments without having the chance to sit there and study it. It was kind of back-and-forth, we had some times where we ran the ball really well and some times when we didn't. They had a couple big plays and we had a lot of times where we were stuffing them in the backfield. I think it was a classic, back-and-forth fight."
On the play by running back Woody Marks to take the ball from Kenneth Grant after he recovered a fumble
"It was an awesome play. That's the type of fight I would expect from just about anybody in our locker room. We've had two kind of like that already, one against LSU as well. The question earlier about why I believe in the locker room, (it's because of) plays like that."
On the play of his offensive tackles in the second half
"We had to move Murph (Mason Murphy) over. Again, I don't want to pass a lot of judgement until I sit there and study it. I know those guys battled, Murph hasn't taken a ton (of snaps) at left tackle here this year, so I thought he came in and battled. And I thought Tobias (Raymond) got in there and did some really good things too. It's a talented (Michigan) front, again, a challenging atmosphere. It's about as tough as it's going to get. (We) battled. Certainly can get better, yes. But a lot of fight in that group.
On how the return team performed
"Didn't get a ton out of the return game. Had some opportunities certainly in the punt return game. I think that was maybe the biggest thing. I thought there was a couple we shouldn't have fair caught that we had a chance to return. A couple that just didn't quite get the seams that we wanted. Not much activity on kickoff return just with the way the game went. The punt team was awesome. We flipped the field a ton and those guys did a tremendous job on punt."
On adjustments that were made offensively at halftime
"There were a few things, with some of the O-line lineup changes. Not anything drastic, felt like we had a lot of opportunities there in the first half that we missed. So, probably more about execution than anything else."
On the challenges presented from Michigan's offense
"They've got good players up front, the quarterback is athletic. The thing that hurt us was big plays. The drives—they had a pick six, and I think every drive they had scored on, there was an explosive play. That was the name of the game. We'll have to go back and look at it, but we probably played and won 80-85% of the defensive snaps. But we lost some of them big, and those are the mistakes that you can't make and that we'll have to clean up."
