USC head coach Lincoln Riley talks open week, prepping for Michigan, more

This week, the USC football program will be off after starting the season 2-0. However, the media was still eager to talk to head coach Lincoln Riley on Thursday.

Almost every time a team has an open week, the head coach is asked if he thinks that the extra time off comes at a good time. Naturally, Riley had to field that question and he said that open weeks are what you make of them.

"The age-old question," he said, "would you rather keep playing or do you need the time? I just always believe these bye weeks, they are what they are. You can sit there, and if you handle it well, you can find advantages in being able to get back and work on yourself, get some guys healthy, to continue developing young players, and still be ready to play at a high level.

"We had a lot of this leading into the LSU game, obviously with it being our first game, and we handled that OK. To me, it’s all in how you handle it. If you handle it well, to me, a bye week should be an advantage no matter what."

With the extra week of preparation, USC has turned its full attention to its September 21 trip to Michigan. Riley was asked about his early thoughts on the Wolverines.

"Yeah, I mean, they’re good," he said. "Defending national champions, a lot of really good players on that roster, great home-field advantage. Texas game was, in my opinion watching it, quite a bit closer than maybe what the scoreboard indicated. It was – like most times when you get two very good football teams together – and those are two very good football teams – came down to a couple plays.

"And Texas made those plays. Michigan had their opportunities to obviously be right there in it, and Texas made more key plays than they did. But teams are going to evolve. We understand that. Each week is different. They’ve got really, really good players all over the field. Really strong at the line of scrimmage. Obviously they’re breaking in some new players at positions with some of the guys that moved on from last year’s team, but extremely talented team and will be a super challenge for us."

Linebacker Eric Genrty has been a bright spot on the USC defense but he's a bit dinged up. Riley was asked about his status.

"He will be available this week," Riley said. "I think I addressed that earlier in the week. And I don’t have anything new on it."

Riley and new Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore have something in common in that for their first head coaching job, each took over blue-blood programs after successful head coaches moved on. Riley's first experience was at Oklahoma while Moore's is at Michigan. Riley was asked to give insight into the challenges of those unique situations.

"Yeah, some deja vu," he said, "sounds like a question I got asked, probably, a thousand times several years back. And it’s a legit question, it’s unique, there hasn’t been that many people in that type of scenario, just a few of us. And yeah, so, it’s a cool thing, right, like it’s obviously awesome to take over for a program that’s already having success and trying to maintain it or push it even further.

"There’s, like, I guess like any situation, there’s benefits and then there’s also challenges that come with that. And, yeah, I mean, I think it’s – you gotta take stock of the program, you gotta take stock of the areas that you think it can be better, you gotta take stock of the areas you think, it’s operating at a really, really high level. I tried to find a balance between, I didn’t want to change things just to change ‘em, just because, all right, oh, well now there’s a different head coach.

"I thought, that wasn’t the right path. But also, if there was something that I thought, alright, here’s an area we can be better, an adjustment that I think we should make, I didn’t want to be hesitant to do that, either. So, I just tried to always circle back to it throughout the week, deep down in my gut that this was the best thing for the program, and if it was I tried to be aggressive enough to do it but also I didn’t want to cross the line and certainly mess up something that was already operating at a pretty high level as well."

Michigan has a big-name defensive coordinator in long-time NFL assistant coach Wink Martindale. Riley said he has a ton of respect for Martindale.

"It’s a great scheme," he said. "And he’s one of the OG members of that, certainly. Even though we coached in different leagues, he carries a ton of respect for what he’s done defensively in the NFL and all the different people that coached with him or learned under him. You watch him, you can see, it’s pretty distinct. I mean, you can watch anybody out of that tree and have a pretty good idea pretty quickly of what they do, and they do a great job of it, man.

"It’s been fun getting to watch these guys a little bit, and you some similarities to what we’re doing and things we believe in. So that’ll be a super challenge man. Guys have been doing it a long time and done it at a super high level. Lot of respect. Didn’t necessarily think that a year or two ago we’d be sitting here going up against him. But that’s just kind of how the game is now. It’ll be a fun matchup. Certainly one of the most highly regarded, well-respected coaches we’ve gone up against from a coordinator standpoint."