There was plenty to like in USC’s season-opening 66-14 win over Rice on Saturday.

The 52-point margin of victory was USC’s largest in any game since beating San Jose State by 53 back in September of 2009. The 66 total points scored were USC’s most in a game since winning at Washington State 69-0 in mid-October of 2008. The last time USC scored 66 points or more in a home game was when it won 66-19 over UCLA in December of 2005. It went through the entire game without sending the punt team onto the field, the first time that’s happened since 2014.

And it wasn’t just the offense that piled on the points. USC tied a school record set back in 1982 and a Pac-12 record with three interceptions returned for touchdowns.

When coach Lincoln Riley and the rest of the USC staff turn on the tape from this one, they’ll find some areas to improve, but they’ll also see a ton they should like.

Riley talked about all of it after the game. Here’s everything he said:

Opening statement:

“Great first win. Really, really proud of the team. It’s a fun moment to finally be here. I think the team was anxious and excited just with all the buildup, just ready to finally go play, and I thought we responded well. Obviously, how do you start with anything but the three pick-sixes? I was told it’s a Pac-12 record and a USC record. They’ve been playing ball around here for a long time. You don’t break records very often. So that was a really cool thing for us defensively. I thought the guys responded well, made some adjustments that you’re gonna have in first games. There were some new things on both sides of the ball that we had to adapt to, and guys did a good job with it. I thought we maintained our energy, our physicality throughout the entire game. So I’m proud of the guys. It’s one of those moments, you don’t want to minimize it. I think it’s meaningful to us all, but those of us that have been on these journeys before, we understand this is just the beginning and there’s so much left. So much so much better to play, so much better to coach. It’s a great start. It’s not anything more than that, not anything less than that. So we’re thrilled with the win, thrilled with the way our guys played. Obviously a lot of growing to do as we get started in conference on the road next week.”

On what needs to be tightened up defensively in preparation for Stanford:

“Hopefully we get four pick sixes next week. That’d be awesome. I mean, it was it was a good performance. We did a lot of really good things. We had a couple of a couple of busts that hurt us a couple of times where we didn’t do our job in the run game where, you know, we’re whether we’re supposed to be leveraging a block, spilling a block, that we that we came out of it, and that’s when there were some of the creases in there. But we rallied, we made the plays when we needed to make I would say all three sides of ball were very, very similar. There was some obvious good — a lot of big plays, but there clearly is going to be a lot to get better at which makes it like every first game we’ve ever coached. So we’ll all get back to the drawing board and the most important day is practice on Monday.”

On quarterback Caleb Williams:

“I thought he played well. I thought he was in control, in command, and I thought he saw the field well. Our guys up front did a really good job protecting him, and he didn’t have to move around a ton. I thought he played very much in control and very much at ease. Which, I think, when quarterbacks are playing at a high level, oftentimes it looks like that to me. He threw the ball accurately, managed it. So it was a really good first start for him, I thought he played well.”

On if he felt any butterflies entering his first game coaching at USC:

“Yeah, of course, I’m human. We all are. It is new, and every season you feel them a little bit — probably a little bit more because the team and the new setting and the new school and all of that. But I was because I was anticipating it very much as well — and I think these guys would echo that — I mean, the team, even last night at the team meeting, you could tell they were just like, ‘Get the game here.’ But we’re ready. We’re all a little excited or anxious, just ready to go. But I think that feeling I had you could sense that really throughout the entire program.”

On playing his first game at the Coliseum:

“It’s really cool. The stadium is the stadium so elite. I mean, even those of us that have played in a lot of really cool stadiums, but this stadium is unbelievable. This place, and watching a college football game there, I just I don’t know how it gets any better. So yeah, I loved every second of it. It felt great running on the field, and it felt even better just watching the guys play and do what we’ve worked on so hard. First of many.”

On fan support:

“Our fans that were there, we appreciate them. We understand that in this city — and I think it’s very fair — that we’ve got to go prove who we are as a team. And the more we do that, the more our fans will respond, the more that place will be filled up. So I very much appreciate all those that were there. And we’re going to do everything we can as a team to keep working so that people can’t even stand the thought of not coming to a USC football game. So I look at it as focus on what we got to do, but when we do it, and when we do play that way, then I think our fans will continue to respond.”

On Solomon Tuliaupupu getting playing time:

“I don’t know if there was a player on our squad that our guys were more excited to see get their chance than Solo (Solo- mon). You see what the guy puts into it and how much it means to him and you know a little bit of his history of obviously having so many tough injuries, so to be able to see him get out there and play was really, really cool. And defense certainly led the way. It’s a special game when you get three pick-sixes. That was huge. So I’m proud of the way we played there. We’ll continue to get challenged, but we’re going to continue to challenge people ourselves.”