What USC head coach Lincoln Riley said after his team's loss at Michigan

The USC football team dropped its first game of the season on Saturday in a heartbreaker. Battling back to take a fourth-quarter lead after trailing for most of the game, USC couldn't close the door on the Wolverines in a 27-24 defeat that went down to the wire.

Following the game, Trojan head coach Lincoln Riley spoke to the media. He talked about how proud he was of his team's effort in defeat.

"It was a heck of a college football game," he said. "We came up one play short. Really proud of the fight of our guys. We fought our tails off. Didn't play particularly good in the first half, struggled to get much going offensively. Defensively, we had a couple of just big plays where we came out of gap, and that was really kind of the story of the first half. But the guys rallied, we did some really, really good things in the second half as a football team.

"Had a couple opportunities to close the door and finished one play short. It was a real battle out there, tremendous atmosphere, two good teams going at it."We're obviously very disappointed, but know the season, there's a lot left in it, long ways to go and I like the team I got in that locker room. There's a bunch of fighters in that room, a bunch of guys that are going to get better quickly, and we look forward to getting back and getting into our prep for Wisconsin."

Of course, this was USC's first-ever Big Ten game. Riley was asked about his feelings about his program's debut in its new conference.

"Yeah, it was two good football teams going at it," he said. "Yeah, of course, as competitors you're disappointed. We gave ourselves an opportunity to win a football game, which doesn't happen a whole lot here. So I thought we put ourselves in position, but you've got to finish it, you've got to make some of those plays in the end. Disappointed we didn't make it, disappointed but certainly not defeated. Excited to get back and have our first one at home."

Michigan dominated the USC offensive line all game long. Riley was asked what his line needs to do to improve.

"Well, it was a good opponent," he said. "You know, and obviously when you play in an atmosphere like that there's obvious challenges. They got some momentum early defensively. I thought we made a couple of lineup changes there and I thought we handled it there pretty well for a while. We got to where we were moving pretty good. It's a good group. Listen, we made some mistakes. Some of our young guys came in there and made a few mistakes -- we just got beat one-on-one a couple times against some pretty good players. That's going to happen. But it was a good battle in there. I thought we hung in there and fought, but we definitely have to get better."

Next, Riley was asked about his confidence in his team's ability to respond to the loss. His answer was succinct and definitive.

"The players and coaches in that locker room," he said, "and the fight that you saw out here out of this football team today, that gives me complete confidence."

Prior to Michigan's game-winning drive, USC had a quick three-and-out possession. Riley was asked if he wished he would have called that series differently.

"Yeah, no, I thought I could have been better," he said. "I didn't think I called a very good drive there."

Big Ten football is known as being a physical brand of football. Riley was asked if he thought his team lived up to that billing.

"Yeah, I don't know," he said. "I don't want to make a bunch of big-picture assessments without having a chance to sit there and study it. You know, it was kind of back-and-forth, we had some times where we ran the ball really well, some times where we didn't. They had a couple of big plays, and then we had a lot of times where we were stuffing them in the backfield. So I think it was just a classic back-and-forth fight. That's what it felt like on the sideline."

One of the plays of the day for the Trojans was when Woody Marks stripped the ball from a Michigan defensive lineman who had recovered a USC fumble. Riley talked about what that play says about his running back.

"Yeah, it was an awesome play," he said. "Just the fight. I mean, it's what I would expect out of anybody in our locker room, but that was a -- we've had two kind of like that already this year. We had the one against LSU as well that ended up, it didn't play out the same but it was a similar-type play. So again, the question earlier about why I believe in the locker room plays like that."

With his offensive line struggling in the first half, USC had to shuffle its players after halftime. Riley said he thought that change made a positive difference.

“I thought, you know, we had to move Murph over," he said. "I don’t want to pass a lot of judgment until I can sit there and study it. I know those guys battled. You know, Murph hasn’t taken a ton at left tackle here this year, and so, I thought he came and battled. And I thought Tobias got in there and did some really good things too. So, it’s a talented front, again, it’s a challenging atmosphere. It’s about as tough as it’s gonna get. And so, battled – certainly, can we be better? Yes. But a lot of fight in that group.”

After saying that he had no injury updates on Lake McRee, Makai Lemon, and Akili Arnold, Riley was asked about his assessment of the USC special teams.

“Uh, didn’t get a ton out of the return game," he said. "Had some opportunities, certainly, in the punt-return game, and I think that was probably, maybe the biggest thing. I thought there was a couple that we shouldn’t have fair-caught, had a chance to return. And a couple where, we just didn’t quite get the seams that we wanted. Not much activity on kickoff return, just the way the game went. Now, punt team was awesome. I mean, we flipped the field a ton, guys did a tremendous job on punt, and again Michael was awesome on kickoffs.”

USC certainly played better in the second half, especially on offense. Riley was asked if there were any gameplan adjustments made at halftime.

"I mean, there were a few things with some of the O-line lineup changes," he said, "not anything drastic. Felt like we had a lot of opportunities there in the first half that we missed, so probably about execution than calls.”

Finally, Riley was asked what made Michigan so tough to stop even when the Wolverines had no semblance of a passing game. He gave a ton of credit to the Wolverines' overall talent.

"I mean, they’ve got good players up front," he said, "quarterback’s athletic. I mean, the thing that hurt us was just, was big plays. I mean, we gave up, the drives – they had a pick-six, and then I think every drive they had a score on they had an explosive play. And that’s, I mean, that was the name of the game. Because, I mean, we probably, it’d be interesting to go back and look at it, but I mean we probably played – probably won – 80-85% of the defensive snaps. But we lost some of them big. And that’s, that’s the mistakes that you can’t make and things that you’ll have to clean up.”