Lincoln Riley hopes spring game will inspire Trojan fans
Next Saturday’s exhibition will give fans their first opportunity to see and get excited about Riley’s Trojans
Adam Grosbard (OC Register) — As he was introduced as USC’s new head football coach in November, Lincoln Riley stood in the empty Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It didn’t look all that different from game days in the historic venue that fall, with fans often leaving before the fourth quarter if they even bothered to show up at all.
Even in the early stages of his tenure, Riley knew that the dynamic at the Coliseum had to change.
Ahead of next Saturday’s spring game, Trojans fans’ first opportunity to see a Riley team in person, USC is doing what it can to drive people to the Coliseum.
On Wednesday, USC announced it was making all tickets to the spring game free to the public. There will be food trucks and giveaways, as well as photo opportunities with Traveler, at the Peristyle and on the Coliseum field. Players will sign autographs after the game, and there will be bounce houses available for children.
“Our administration, I would really give them a lot of kudos for all they’ve built around this game to make it really fun and interactive for all of our fans,” Riley said in his Saturday afternoon Zoom call.
There’s a part for Riley to play, too, in generating fan excitement. But that will come more on the field than in the marketing offices.
Riley inherited a team that went 4-8 last season. And in Los Angeles, with so many other options for how to spend a day, fans won’t turn up to watching a losing team.
“They want to support excellence. They want to support success,” Riley said. “We understand that. We don’t shy away from that.”
Riley and his staff have spent the past several months trying to provide the infrastructure for a winner, largely through the transfer portal. Potential Heisman candidate Caleb Williams is the headliner at quarterback, but former Alabama freshman All-American linebacker Shane Lee, speedy receiver Mario Williams and former Oregon workhorse running back Travis Dye fit the bill, too.
So it will be a different Trojans team that takes the field for the spring game than the one that ended 2021 with four consecutive losses.
“I don’t know, if you can’t get excited right now about what’s happened to this point, I don’t know if there’s magic words to get that done,” Riley said. “This Saturday will be a lot of fun, but obviously this fall, it becomes vitally important.”
As for what exactly next Saturday will look like, Riley did not want to guess what attendance will be for the spring game. And he wasn’t ready to announce a spring game format, saying any new strains on the team’s depth chart could cause a change.
But the expectation is that USC will at least play a full half of football in front of its fans, and Riley hopes there will be a large turnout for the players who have been working in spring practices.
“I’ll tell you this. It’s not going to be a game of tag. We’re going to play football,” Riley said. “I know it would mean a lot to our guys to have a great, energetic crowd. That’s what we expect, just like they expect things out of us.”
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