USC head coach Lincoln Riley speaks ahead of Big Ten opener vs. Michigan

Thursday, USC football head coach Lincoln Riley met with the media to discuss a wide range of topic including life in the Big Ten. Here's a look at what he had to say.

One interesting question sent his way concerned what he learned from coaching at Ohio State. Of course, that was in Riley's first year as a head coach so he's grown quite a bit since then.

"Learned? I don't know, that was just my second game as a head coach and it was a big game at the time, like this one is," he said. "Two really good football teams, like this one is. You're going into a tough road venue kind of like that one was. So yeah, it just reinforced the idea you've got to embrace the road, you've got to be able to handle the ups and downs, the momentum swings that are different when you play in road ball, especially in good atmospheres. You've got to be a really tough-minded, physical, committed group to be able to go win games like this one the road. Yeah, really fond memories of that one and a lot to learn from, but obviously there's a lot different as well."

An interesting topic that also came up was the program's preparation for Big Ten travel, which will take USC much farther east than PAC-12 play did. Riley said that the trojans have left no stone unturned when trying to prepare for this new challenge.

"Good question, a lot went into this," he said. "There was definitely a lot of conversations and time spent with both college teams and especially NFL teams, because they do these types of trips a lot more often than we do. We're lucky to have obviously two teams right here in town that we were able to spend a decent amount of time with on this subject -- both logistics, the science behind when you travel, the nutrition, everything from a physical standpoint for the guys.

"So yeah, we settled in pretty quickly on continuing to leave the day before the game. So we will leave a little bit early and that was something we all feel very confident with. Yeah, we've got a great ops team here with Clarke, with Ben Hynds, with Cheryl Taplin, those people do a great job. We sent people out early on in the spring to get to these different locations, especially this year because it is a lot of new locations for us, whether it's scouting out hotels or routes or just anything that's unique about the travel that we have to keep in mind.

"Because at that point you know where you're going, you get an idea of where you're going to stay, but you don't know game time a lot of times so you've got to be ready to adapt. So, yeah, we're confident in our travels and our plans, being able to handle it. We've obviously got a couple of these road trips that are a little bit longer than what we're used to -- nothing crazy. We're not flying to like Ireland or doing one of those crazy things like some of the other folks are, but yeah, we've had to make a couple of small adjustments and we need to handle it well just like every other part."

The huge story leading into this game is the Wolverines' QB change. Riley was asked if it was an advantage to his team that Michigan made that information public early in the week.

"I don't know," he said. "I mean, not that I could speak to. You could see advantages from both sides. Sure, if you're on our side, you say, 'Oh, that's great, we have an idea of who they're going to play with.' But I think also there's a sense of -- again, I don't want to speak for Coach Moore or anybody else -- but probably a sense of you get some clarity to your own roster and some of the question marks there.

"At the end of the day, it's going to still be how do we play, how do they play, who's ready to play, who executes the best on game day. I know it's a story right now -- when the game starts it's going to be who plays the best on game day and I just don't think them announcing it is going to make a massive difference for one team or the other. Somebody's going to play better than the other team and that team is going to win."

Of course, USC fans are thrilled thus far with new defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn. Riley received a couple of questions about his top assistant. The first concerned the alignment between he and Lynn.

"It's completely held true, " he said. "I think he's very confident, committed to how we want to play. Not rigid, but there's a style that we want to play that he believes in and I believe in and we're just continuing forward and continuing to progress with that. So yeah, it's been exactly what I expected it would be.

"Anytime in situations like this where you work with somebody, especially in an important position like D coordinator, you work with somebody you haven't worked with before, there's got to be some trust on both sides. Hopefully, he sees, I know he does, that we've lived up to everything we said we would do in terms of supporting that vision and building the right supporting cast and all the other people's roles in that that we've tried to do everything we can to make that happen. Like I said, I think he and our staff right now have done a great job. It's two games in and we've got to keep it up."

Next, Riley discussed what he's taken from Lynn in terms of preparation. Of course, Riley said there has been plenty.

"Yeah," he said, "one thing we try to do, we've done it a couple of times this year is cross meet where maybe a guy that's say a running back coach may go sit in the linebacker meeting. It's good to do that, but I like seeing how other really good coaches run their meetings, how they get information to the players, how they present.

"I think we're all teachers at heart, and there's not any of us that we're so good of a teacher that we can't go listen to somebody that's a really good teacher and learn something from it. I think Coach Lynn and all the new coaches we've brought in, there's been a lot in terms of their experience, how they present, how they teach that I've been able to learn from, I think our coaches have been. That's one advantage of having a really good staff is you've got guys on staff that are going to push each other with different ways to be effective that even if we don't coach the same position I can take this and do a better job with my guys. So yeah, that's happened across the board here."