Lincoln Riley says Trojans are well-equipped to

CHICAGO — The stage was set this past summer time, and Lincoln Riley was a ball of nerves.

The USC coach ought to’ve been used to weathering stress by that level. After all, his earlier 4 seasons spent teaching the Trojans had been nothing short of a powder keg, crammed with ups and downs, as properly as a fixed undercurrent of rigidity and uncertainty. But in this explicit case, success was out of Riley’s control. He wasn’t even close to a soccer subject.

Rather, he was sitting in the viewers of a local dance recital, ready on his two younger daughters, Sloan and Stella, who had been each making their solo dancing debut with their company.

“This was the first year, stepping out on their own, no one else to rely on,” Riley said. “But they told me, ‘Dad, we’ve got it.’”

Entering his fifth and most pivotal season yet at USC, their father can relate to that sentiment. While the highlight burns brighter than ever and the collective school soccer world is spinning 2026 as a make-or-break second for Riley, the coach had never sounded so assured that his Trojans had turned a nook than he did Tuesday.

“I’ve felt the pressure to win every single year here,” Riley said during Big Ten media days. “What does feel different is that I think our opportunity to do that is greater than what it has been. It just flat out is. The things you need to win, we have more of than we had in the first four years.”

Riley, of course, has made that case before. After each of the last two seasons, in fact. But it’s never been fairly as compelling as it’s now.

As the coach sees it, USC now boasts more depth on both sides of the ball than at any level in his tenure, in large half because of bringing in the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation in January. Riley also added a Hall of Fame coach at defensive coordinator in hopes of stabilizing issues on that facet of the ball. And 10 days earlier, this system moved into its new, state-of-the-art soccer facility, with all the facilities anybody may ask for.

“It’s just a culmination of all of it, you know?” Riley said. “It is just so much more well-equipped to win consistently right now. It’s so different.”

That’s never been a query for Riley’s offenses at USC, and this yr ought to be no different, with third-year starter Jayden Maiava returning at quarterback and a two-pronged backfield in Waymond Jordan and King Miller main the way in which in the run recreation. The offensive line also seems to be like Riley’s strongest unit yet in 5 seasons.

The doubts, per common, are on protection, where the Trojans are not the most seasoned group.

“The entire defense is just very young compared to last year,” defensive sort out Jide Abasiri said.

Riley is also now working with his third defensive coordinator in 5 seasons. And one who hasn’t coached in 5 years, at that.

Gary Patterson does have an spectacular resume, with years of top-tier defenses at Texas Christian. And he continues to get rave reviews from Riley, who called the Hall of Famer “one of one” on Tuesday.

“You really have somebody that is like a head coach in that room,” Riley said. “The guy’s one of the most experienced, accomplished coaches in the game. Like, it just is what it is.

“I think just my confidence level and, you know, what’s being handled, how it’s being handled, how we’re developing, how we’re using our roster … is just really, really high right now.”

It better be at this level, contemplating all that USC has invested in Riley and his complete teardown and rebuild of the Trojan soccer program. Across town, billboards declaring “THE TIME IS NOW” make abundantly clear just how pressing this season will probably be at USC.

At the start of his fifth season, Riley is satisfied the Trojans are proper on schedule.

“All the things that help you win are better,” Riley said. “And that’s gonna give us more chances to win. That’s where my optimism comes from.”