USC makes big statement in first win of Lincoln Riley era…
Adam Grosbard (OC Register) — LOS ANGELES — When the coin came down in USC’s favor on Saturday, Lincoln Riley could have gone with conventional football wisdom. Let Rice receive the ball, and take the second-half kickoff.
Instead, Riley opted to put his offense, the unit that he has made his name and reputation off of, on the field first, and make a thesis statement of sorts of what his tenure as head coach of the Trojans would look like.
Three minutes and 19 seconds, seven plays and 75 yards later, USC had the first touchdown of the Riley era, and the first touches on a 66-14 win over the Owls to open the 2022 season.
That opening drive was exactly what was promised to USC fans during an off-season of transformation. Transfer QB Caleb Williams opened the game with a 12-yard pass to Jordan Addison, last year’s Biletnikoff winner at Pitt.
By the time the drive was over, Williams found Addison on the goal line after a shifty route created enough space to complete the five-yard TD pass.
The offense largely lived up to all expectations of the hype brought about Riley’s hiring. Touchdowns on the first three drives, 538 total yds, 7.4 per carry, a 5-7 mark on third down.
And 66 points, the most since 2008, when Pete Carroll and Mark Sanchez were roaming the Coliseum sidelines.
As promised, Riley got several playmakers involved. Returner Tahj Washington was the surprise leading-receiver in the first half with four catches for 65 yards. Austin Jones scored a pair of touchdowns. Star freshman Raleek Brown (14) took a read handoff from Williams 14 yards around the edge for a touchdown, striking a Heisman pose in the end zone.
But while the offense lived up to expectations, the defense took a little time to earn its keep.
USC gave up three straight third-down conversions through the air on the opening drive by the Owls, a team better known for its run game than passing. When the Trojans finally got a stop on the goal line, Rice promptly rushed into the end zone on fourth down.
Rice averaged 6.7 ypc in the first half while gaining 218 total yards.
USC made up for these early miscues, however, with three pick-sixes, tying the program and Pac-12 records.
Sophomore safety Calen Bullock took a tipped pass 93 yards after a chase-down, touchdown-saving tackle four plays earlier. Shane Lee and Ralen Goforth returned interceptions for 40 and 31 yards, respectively, on back-to-back drives to open the second half.
Xamarion Gordon made it interceptions on three straight drives, setting up a second Williams-to-Addison touchdown as the receiver went in motion to gain some room to operate.
All told, Williams completed 19 of 22 passes for 249 yards, rushing for an additional 68, while Addison hauled in five passes for 54 yards in their USC debuts.
ocregister.com
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What was great to see was the play of Benton on the DL. While Tuli got doubled all night Benton got penetration and made 5 tackles. To bad Height got removed as he and Foreman were coming from both edges a few times. Some wrinkles to iron out? Of course. Some cause for excitement? Absolutely.
The game was as advertised.
The offense was very good.
The defense did some ball hawking.
Room for improvement is the run defense but just enough.
You can see a good running team will get some long drives on
the ground without improvement.
PAC 12 is pathetic and you boys are in it.
Rice.
Troll, like Arky St and Toledo are powerhouses or something…
I’ll see your Arky St and Toledo and raise you Rice and Fresno St.
PAC 12 went 0-3 vs week 1 P5 opponents and was outscored in those games 116-42. And, Idaho and Colgate covered!
USC should roll through that conference.
Scioto, No team in the Pac (except Utah) would stand a chance against the Ohio State team I saw last night, including SC. Utah has a front 7 on D, OL, scheme, culture, and staff that would be able to keep it close (and if they got lucky perhaps win the game). SC’s O could hang with your D, but our D would get steam rolled by your O. Oregon getting destroyed by GA and Utah losing to FL assured that the Pac will NOT play in the Final 4 this year. SC has two years to recruit a front… Read more »
Oregon was highly overrated. Dan Lanning seems like a good guy and very good defensive coach, but I think he made two fatal mistakes with his OC hire and bringing in Bo Nix. The performance by Nix was not surprising. Kirby Smart even said that both teams had the same number of first downs in the first half, but essentially Nix was Nix. If Ohio State had this defense last year (same players, different awful DC), they blow out Oregon last year. I thought playing in the Swamp was going to be hard for Utah and wasn’t surprised they lost.… Read more »
I confess to being a cfb junky yesterday and having all 3 games going at once, streaming one each to each of my 3 monitors. Naturally, USC was on the biggest and best one. I made a comment during the game on the post that morphed into a running commentary that it looked like in both the UT-UF and OSU-ND games that they were hitting harder. They didn’t look faster though. The general sentiment seems to be that we would not be surprised if UT beats USC in the upcoming game, but that USC gets payback in the conference championship… Read more »
Really, Scioto? You’re going to come in here with nothing more to say than an inane poke like “My tomato cans are better than your tomato cans!”? Don’t even try that transitive property lameness around here.
Lol