Lincoln Riley knows how to take USC from October loss to College Football Playoff
Ryan Kartje (LA Times) — In each of his first three seasons as Oklahoma’s coach, Lincoln Riley entered October with an unblemished record and a top-10 ranking … only to drop a game unexpectedly.
In 2017, it was Iowa State that upset the third-ranked Sooners. A year later, Texas knocked No. 7 Oklahoma off its throne with a game-winning field goal. A year after that, Riley’s Sooners were once again upended in October, this time by Kansas State.
Each of the three defeats at the time appeared to doom any hope of Oklahoma making the College Football Playoff. But in all three cases, Riley’s team didn’t lose another game for the rest of the regular season. All three ended up earning places in the Playoff.
It’s no wonder then, as USC enters its bye week, that no one, least of all Riley, is panicking after the Trojans suffered their first loss of the season last Saturday at Utah.
“You get tested in a different way when you lose one, especially the way that one played out,” Riley said. “Everything I’ve seen from this team up to this point leads me to believe that we’ll handle it in a way that brings us closer together and makes us even better. We have to go do it. Feeling that and thinking you’re capable is one thing. Going and doing it is another.”
A soft schedule out of the bye certainly helps. USC’s next three opponents (Arizona, California and Colorado) are a combined 7-12. After traveling to Tucson for their next matchup, the Trojans also don’t have to leave Los Angeles for the rest of the regular season.
Those favorable circumstances won’t matter much if USC can’t find answers this week to its issues on defense, where the Trojans were trounced Saturday for 562 yards, the fifth-most yards they’ve given up in a game over the past decade.
“I don’t think we need to abandon ship or anything like that,” linebacker Shane Lee said. “I just think we need to tighten the hatches and bear down and really continue to dig into the details and focus in.”
Poor tackling is an especially pertinent concern. According to Pro Football Focus, USC missed 18 tackles against Utah, eight more than in any other game this season. Lee, who played through a hand injury, missed five.
Riley said USC wouldn’t hold back tackling in practice this week, despite entering the bye with both sides of the ball banged up.
“There’s no balance,” Riley said. “We have to clean it up.”
He’s cleaned up similar messes before. The question now, as USC faces its first bit of adversity, is whether this team might follow a similar path from its own mid-October slip-up.
“There’s no time to sulk,” Lee said. “You have to pick yourself up and get back to work. That’s what it’s about. There are other games to play. It’s not the end of the season, not by any stretch of the imagination.”
Addison, Gentry OK
Its top wideout left with a leg injury. Its lead inside linebacker was carted off the field with an injured ankle. Both were relegated to crutches late in last Saturday’s loss.
But Jordan Addison (3) and Eric Gentry appear to have escaped without serious injuries and are “day to day,” Riley said Tuesday. The news constituted a major sigh of relief for USC, which would’ve had difficulty replacing either player.
Addison leads USC in receptions (39), receiving yards (585) and receiving touchdowns (7), while Gentry leads the Trojans in tackles (52). Whether either will be ready to go when USC returns from its bye, though, remains to be seen.
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