Quarterback Caleb Williams threw for a career-high 411 yards and five scores while completing 69% of his throws, USC got key contributions from a number of players thrust into new roles because of injury, and the 10th-ranked Trojans outlasted Arizona to win 45-37 in Tucson.

The win moved USC to 7-1 on the season and 5-1 in conference play.

After the game, coach Lincoln Riley met with reporters to break things down. Here’s everything he said, with video of the press conference at the bottom:

Opening statement

“Awesome, gutsy win. With the way the last few weeks have gone, for our guys to come in here and overcome a lot of things outside of our control, I’m as proud of this win as any of the seven this year. Without a doubt. Just told the team that in the locker room.

“So many guys stepping up you kind of lose count. It’d be hard to name them all right now. But, guys stepping up, key contributions from all sides. Knew it was going to be a tough matchup, an emotional game. Obviously they’ve got some explosive players that made some really tremendous one-on-one plays. You knew they had that capability.

“Our fight, we just weren’t going to let anything get to us. Team came in here very poised, very determined, and I think you saw that effort. I’m really, really thrilled with this win. As we’ve seen in college football across the country, I’ve said it a bunch, winning on the road is very, very hard. To overcome all the stuff we did tonight was pretty cool.”

On the officiating blunder to end the first half

“At the end of the half, it was a little scrambled and I probably honestly didn’t give them a whole lot of time for an explanation. And then after (halftime), we talked. They admitted that they messed it up. My question was if you messed it up, why wasn’t it just stop play and review it? The explanation given to me at the beginning of the third quarter was just that they obviously didn’t handle it properly, which, I mean, anybody knows that watching it.”

On Mario Williams’ status and the receivers

“Mario physically wasn’t ready. Had a little tweak come up. We expected him to be available and then pregame just gave it a go and wasn’t ready.

“Our other guys really stepped up. Guys made some big plays. Tahj (Washington) was really good again for us. (Brenden) Rice had a couple really critical plays. (Kyle) Ford, (Terrell) Bynum, CJ (Williams), Kyron (Hudson). I mean, they just stepped up and made some big plays and we had to have them. It was cool to see those guys step up and really accept the challenge and embrace the moment. Mike Jack. All those (guys). When you’ve got two of your top receivers out, you test the depth of your group and our guys responded.”

On what kept Andrew Vorhees off the field, and what he thought of Mason Murphy’s play on the line

“Everybody that didn’t play today was a physical issue. I thought Mason did a nice job stepping up. It was important for him to do that. Then I thought Courtland Ford came in and played well for us. Proud of those two guys at tackle. Obviously moved (Jonah) Monheim around a little bit. He continues to be really impressive with his versatility as a player. He’s been super valuable. Those guys stepped up and played well.”

On the defense

“Still gave up too many big plays. The quarterback here is a unique challenge. We’ve got him dead to rights I don’t know how many times in the game and he made some plays. You’ve got to give them credit, too. Some of the throws and catches out there were… I mean, you can’t cover them better. They made some unbelievable plays, especially in the first half. There were three or four catches and throws that were fantastic.

“We definitely tackled better, and that was a big part of it. We were scoring pretty quick offensively so it kind of became that kind of game for a little bit, but we got the key stops when we needed to. Again, doing it without several important players on that side of the ball. It was good to see us get the stops when we had to have them.”

On responding to adversity

“The number of things that didn’t go our way was a long list. You have some of the tough things that didn’t go our way in the first half and playing without the number of players we were, I don’t know many teams that would have responded like this.

“I felt like we would. I’ve told you guys the last two weeks I do believe this team will respond based on the vibe after the Utah game, based on the vibe the last two weeks, but you;ve got to go do it. You can be awesome for the previous 13 days and if you’re not ready to put it on the line and work tonight and overcome it then it’s kind of all for not. We were ready to do that. I just think the mindset of this team was in a really, really good place tonight.

“There’s gonna be plays that we want back and things we’ve got to do better, but if our mindset stays that way, we’re gonna keep making progress. We’ll get a couple of these guys back, other guys will continue to step up, and we need to be ready to surge right here.”

On the onside kick decision

“I mean, it’s just a strategy that we felt like was the right. I actually thought Denis (Lynch) hit a pretty good kick. You rarely see on turf the ball stay that low that long. Just never really got the hope we wanted. It was just part of the strategy to help us win the game. We felt like it was the right call.”