USC’s Riley: Expectations may have impacted us

• Paolo Uggetti, ESPNOct 22, 2023, 02:30 AM ET

LOS ANGELES– The sights and noises were all too familiar for USC.A dropping Caleb Williams mustered a minor wave to the Coliseum fans who could not hide their disappointment. A crowd of Utah players mocked the home crowd as they ran the field in success. And Lincoln Riley sat alone at the podium attempting to discuss how, for the third time in three games, Utah had actually once again beaten USC– this time on a basket in the last seconds that provided the Utes a 36-34 win.

“2 tough losses in a row and clearly not how any of us scripted this, however you can’t script it. It’s college football,” Riley said. “It boils down to little things occasionally, and we have not rather played tidy enough here in the last couple of weeks to make the most of it.”

Just like he did after the loss to Notre Dame recently, Riley protected his team’s battle and chalked up the loss to a mix of errors and shortcomings by every USC unit versus a hard opponent.Editor’s Picks 2 Related But the Utes have proved to be more than simply a difficult match. They have ended up being a particularly impossible riddle for Riley and Co. to fix– an informal marker of just how much work USC still has to do to become what it hopes to be.On Saturday, in spite of having far less skill on the field than USC and lacking starting quarterback Cameron Rising, the Utes’ identity and collective force was once again too much for the Trojans to deal with. Whittingham’s team didn’t do any one thing marvelously, rather using USC down with a steady offense and its customary stout defense.USC, on the other hand, fell into some familiar traps as soon as again. Even after making some modifications to the offensive line following the six-sack loss to Notre Dame– shifting Mason Murphy to right guard and Jarett Kingston to right deal with while benching Florida transfer Michael Tarquin– the line might have looked enhanced, but the offense looked nearly as rhythmless as it performed in South Bend.Williams threw for only 256 yards and didn’t have a goal throw after starting the season with 23 touchdowns in 7

games. While Utah’s Sione Vaki collected 217 all-purpose yards on his own, USC produced simply 145 rushing yards on the night. The Utes, who had the 55th-ranked offense in SP +entering into the game, outgained the Trojans’third-ranked offense by 81 yards and held the ball for nearly 10 minutes more.Defensively, the Trojans reverted to bad practices at inopportune moments, missing a couple of crucial takes on and permitting players such as Vaki and quarterback Bryson Barnes to engineer big

plays. Barnes ’23-yard rush with less than a minute left in the game was the backbreaker that established the game-winning field goal.Riley, who didn’t make any players readily available to the media after the loss, said he felt like in 2015’s team, which went 11-1 in the regular season, might have overachieved. He said this year’s group might have been affected by the expectations that have followed.”Everyone anticipates you to be great. Everyone anticipates that you can have a championship-caliber group, “Riley said.”And when you’re constantly attempting to live up to those expectations, you can type of fall away from possibly what puts you there because position in the very first place.”When asked about those expectations and whether USC has actually fallen short of them this season, Riley stated the group has had to”fight to keep things on our terms. “” We don’t be available in every single week discussing winning a championship game, going to the playoffs,”

Riley said. “I do not know where that narrative starts. … If you let the outside set expectations, you’re constantly being determined up versus that.”As he has done after both close victories and losses, Riley reiterated that USC still has plenty to play for. Though its College Football Playoff possibilities might have evaporated after Saturday, the Trojans still have just one conference loss, making a journey back to the Pac-12 title game possible.But after Saturday’s loss, it will take some work for USC to do that, considered that matchups versus Oregon, Washington and UCLA wait for and a 2nd conference loss will likely seal its fate.”It’s not coach speak, it’s not trying to create something that’s not there,” Riley stated.”There is a real chance for this group right now and this group can do it.

Now we got to play much better. We got to play cleaner, we got to coach much better.”If Riley’s launching season was a screen of USC’s potential, then the 2nd year has been a dosage of reality that it will, certainly

, take some time and growing pains to reach said capacity. Riley may press back against outside expectations and hope his players ignore them however in the same breath acknowledge that they aren’t going away.If anything, after a stretch like

this, they will only ramp up.”We’re not going anywhere, “Riley stated.”We signed up to do this thing for a very long time. “