Lincoln Riley gives surprising weight gain update and more after first practice

Friday was a significant day in USC football history. No games were played nor trophies handed out but for the first time, USC took to the practice field as a Big Ten program after officially joining the conference at midnight.

Following USC's first practice of fall camp, Lincoln Riley spoke to the media about what he saw. And he began by talking about an noticeable improvement he witnessed from his defense.

"...even without seeing the film you could tell defensively there was already a difference, you know, a different comfort level than certainly when we opened or even maybe when we closed spring," he said. "And we challenged our defensive players that we didn't want to just pick up where we left off we wanted to accelerate so that when we got here even this first day it looked even better than it did in the spring at any point and that has been just a bit big point for us throughout the offseason of preparing ourselves to come in here and don't just be satisfied with picking up where we left off.

"And I thought that we did that so yeah, guys flew around. You know, obviously, you have some limitations on what you can do when you're not padded but I thought we handled the day well a lot of great energy and juice and excited to get back in there [and see] the film."

One interesting update that Riley gave was that his team has undergone a massive overall transformation in the weight room this offseason. In fact, he said that to prepare for life in the Big Ten, his roster has put on around 1,400 pounds collectively.

"I think you know probably the biggest one for us," he said, "I mean as a team you know 1400 LB gain as a team from the start of the offseason to now...obviously that was a big point of emphasis. You know really phenomenal, I would not say job, I would say transformation by our strength staff or nutrition staff medical I mean everybody that was involved in the offseason because this was a major shift or philosophy change especially defensively and to get these bodies equipped to come do it was a big step and so yeah we're obviously a lot bigger football team..."

Riley said he hopes that the increased size of his roster makes his team more intimidating and formidable.

"We want more guys that are the first off the bus kind of guys," he said "And yeah I mean it's it is there's there's certainly a psychological piece to it there's a mentality piece to it. There is a physical benefit to to getting it done. One of the things we really emphasized was we know we've got to put this weight on.

"However, these guys have got to be in shape you know they still got to be able to move they still got to be able you know to to play explosive like it's not just a throw as much as you can on and that's a tough balance for for both players staff all of that. You know looks like I mean our guys are in shape right now we flew around we handled this practice with ease which is what you want to see.

Next, Riley was asked about his QB1 position. As expected, he said that Miller Moss is in the driver's seat. However, he didn't anoint anyone as his starter yet.

"Well I mean...you know Miller had the best spring like I told you guys at the end of the spring," he said. "There's no question if we were playing at that point that he would have been the starter. Now, you know in my history man a lot changes you know. I mean you got some other guys in the room you know Jayden [Maiava] and Jake [Jensen] they got reps that have gotten better fast.

"We're excited to see those guys excited to see what Jayden can do after now having an offseason where he understands the offense and can grow. So my expectation is he's going to be quite a bit better than what he was and this early the expectation is that Miller and Jake and the guys that have been here are going to continue to grow too.

"So yeah I mean it's not a decision that we had to make in the spring so we didn't. I think I gave you guys a fair honest update of where it was. But then at the same time you know we're going to rep these guys. They're all going to rep, we're going to rep these guys here until we feel separation right now and not try to factor in too much of what happened before."

The final interesting nugget Riley gave was about his pleasure with the House of Victory N.I.L. collective. He said that he is "thrilled" where that collective is and what it is doing for his program.

"I'm not happy with it I'm thrilled with it," he said. "I'm thrilled with it. I mean the percentage gains and the momentum that it has created, the job that House of Victory has done the job that our people that work there the people here the Trojan family that support it, I mean it's incredible gains.

"It's honestly, you know, you hope for it but do you expect it? I don't ever want to not expect big things here. I mean this is USC, but I mean we're talking substantial substantial gains, momentum, and not just in the dollar figure but how we operate. The confidence of our team and our program in it, of our recruits, I mean it's just, it couldn't be higher so they have just done a phenomenal job. It's going to continue to get better like we expect all parts of this but I cannot say enough about the job that House of Victory and everybody that supported have done and we need people to obviously continue to do it, it makes a difference it matters."