Lincoln Riley updates plan on USC offensive line heading into Utah matchup
Lincoln Riley expects better line play from No. 18 USC on Saturday when it hosts No. 14 Utah.
If that doesn’t materialize, the Trojans are prepared to make changes.
“We have some options. We’ve looked at a couple of different lineups this week,” Riley said Thursday when he met with reporters.
“We do feel like we’ve got some options in terms of the lineup. We’ll make a decision going into the game and then if it’s going good, we’ll stick with it. If it’s not, we feel like we have some different combinations we can go to.”
USC quarterback Caleb Williams was under constant harassment in the Trojans’ 48-20 loss to Notre Dame last Saturday. After giving up just seven sacks over the first five games of the season, Williams has been brought down 10 times in the last two games.
Notre Dame sacked him six times and kept the Trojans under 150 rushing yards for the third consecutive game.
The six sacks Notre Dame produced were just one shy of the record seven times Utah got Williams in the Pac-12 title game last season.
“We’ve been really close to playing really good, and there’s a lot of good,” Riley said. “You just don’t see it yet because we haven’t put it together all 11. That’s obviously our challenge and what we’ve got to do a lot better job of.”
Riley reiterated that USC helped itself earlier in the season by fielding a healthy rotation on the offensive line. He referenced the management of the group a year ago when key starters were in and out of the lineup with injuries.
But in recent weeks, USC has only really leaned on six players at the five spots. Mason Murphy, Michael Tarquin, Jonah Monheim, Emmanuel Pregnon, Justin Dedich, and Jarrett Kingston have been the fixtures, but no one has been playing particularly well.
“Playing some of the different lineups we did earlier in the year — playing different people — has its benefits and I think here in the second half of the season we’ll see that,” Riley said.
USC (6-1, 4-0 Pac-12) needs to start seeing them right away to keep its Pac-12 title hopes intact.
Kickoff against the Utes (5-1, 2-1 Pac-12) is set for 5 p.m. PT on FOX.