Lincoln Riley discusses defense, Miller Moss after huge victory over No. 13 LSU

There was a lot of talk this offseason about whether Lincoln Riley is an elite college football coach or not. On Sunday, the USC head coach gave his detractors something to chew on by leading the Trojans to a 27-20 win over No. 13 LSU in Las Vegas.

Following the game, Riley was, of course, pleased with his team's effort.

"Great environment in there," he said, "great stadium great opponent two teams really went at it, kind of traded blows the entire game. Was proud of our guys because we had some missed opportunities as a football team that we felt like for a while there we were out playing them a little bit more than what the scoreboard you know looked like. We had a couple of chances offensively I thought we had a pretty good chance to pick the touchdown ball down there in our end zone defensively but our guys were resilient.

"They kept battling. Was proud with a lot of new players on both sides, obviously the massive changes defensively. I was just really proud of how hard and how well we played and how much we trusted it and then when there was adversity we didn't panic as a football team we just kept grinding and we were a tough gritty physical team.

"They got it done in the end so there's a fun game. Hats off to LSU. Looks like they'll be a really good football team this year, no surprise, but proud of our guys for getting the win and looking forward here to, we'll look forward to getting back to L.A. Be fun to get back to L.A., fun to get to the Colosseum for our first home game. I'm sure fans are pretty juiced up right now pretty excited, as they should be and looking forward to a home game No. 1."

Riley was then asked whether this win validated the offseason work and the changes that the program has made. He said, though, that he doesn't coach for the praise of people outside of the program.

"Yeah, like I tell you guys, I don't I don't coach for the media," he said. "I don't I don't coach for headlines. We just try to do what's best in our program and we try to stay just incredibly committed to it regardless of what anybody says on the outside.

"Whether they agree with us or don't agree with us is honestly irrelevant to us. We know what we've been building. We're very confident in the approach that we're taking with the people that we're putting in our program, players staff everyone and I just know I've been...I'm not the most experienced guy but I have been through a couple of these I have a decent idea of what pretty good looks like and I know we're making progress and it was fun to get the win today.

"Obviously, opportunities like this don't come every single day where you know high profile opponent and obviously all the exciting lead up to the game. I'm glad that we took advantage of it. But like regardless of what happened today it's still not going to change what we're building, anything we're doing. We're just so committed to it and it's nothing's going to change it and we're just going to keep getting better and I'm proud of us for taking this step and getting this opportunity done today."

Next, Riley fielded a question about the message he wanted to put out after such an eye-openeing win.

"That's some pretty good big 10 football today," he said. "I mean, I don't know, we're just not into it for messages man. I just, my message is I really like my team, I like our team I like our defense I like our coaches I like our offense I like our special teams I like the vibe of this team. We've got a long, long, long ways to go but I'm sure glad I'm coaching these guys."

The story of the night was USC's revamped defense. It held a potent Tiger offense in check all night by making big plays when needed. As expected, Riley had high praise for that side of the ball.

"We battled all game long," he said. "We didn't we didn't give up too many explosives we had the one coverage bust there at the end but then you know we had to get some big stops there. I mean the the ones that I really point to you know, we had the initial goal line stop, and then after the 4th and 8th that we didn't convert offensively like that so that was a key moment right there.

"The chance to go up two scores we get the stop there and then even after the explosive on the last drive you know we find a way you know and we get the stop and we hold them to a field goal. So just you know you could bring in really good coaches, which we did, you can run whatever scheme that you want to run but at the end of the day these guys have got to trust and believe in it and we've brought in some outstanding players like Kamari [Ramsey] that have just you know really I think helped us kind of grab hold of this defense early on.

"And then we've got a lot of guys that were in the locker room before that are incredibly hungry to go play USC defense and there's a vibe and a confidence about that group right now. And we're just going to get better so I'm really proud of the effort tonight and I'm not surprised but it was cool to see in that moment, in that arena us believing it as much as we did."

On the other side of the ball, Miller Moss was outstanding by throwing for over 370 yards and leading his team's game-winning drive in the closing minutes. As expected, Riley heaped plenty of praise on his quarterback.

"I got a lot of belief in him," Riley said. "They, both these guys [Moss and Ramsey], I have a lot of belief in our players, have a lot of belief in Miller and his understanding of not just our system but the way we want to play. I feel like we're very much in sync in a lot of ways and I mean he's a tough competitor man. I mean that's what he's proven. He's a tough competitor that loves his team and is a great leader for this team and we got a lot of guys like him in our locker room right now and when you do that then you tend to have moments like this."