ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Certainly, Lincoln Riley thought his introduction to the Big Ten would go much different. But the bruising, physical conference welcomed him and the USC Trojans in by showcasing a complete lack of a passing offense on the other side, along with a ferocious defensive attack.
Michigan football only attempted 12 passes, with new starting quarterback Alex Orji completing only seven of them for 32 yards. Conversely, the Wolverines ran the ball 46 times for 290 yards and three touchdowns.
After the game, Riley met with the USC media to discuss what happened in the 27-24 Michigan win. Here is (almost) everything he had to say.
Opening statement
All right, yeah, it was a heckuva football game, we came up one play short. We were proud of the fight of our guys. We fought our tails off, didn’t play particularly good in the first half, struggled to get much going offensively. Defensively, we had a couple of just big plays when we came out of gap. And that was really kind of the story of the first half, but the guys rallied.
We did some really, really good things in the second half. As a football team, had a couple opportunities to close the door and finished one play short. There was a real battle out there. Tremendous atmosphere, two good teams going at it. We’re obviously very disappointed, but the season, there’s a lot left in it. Long ways to go. I like the team. I like the team I got. In that locker room, there’s a bunch of fighters in that room. Bunch of guys are going to get better quickly and look forward to getting back and getting into our prep for Wisconsin.
On it being the first Big Ten game
That was two good football teams going at it. Of course, as competitors, you’re disappointed. We gave ourselves an opportunity to win the football game, which doesn’t happen a whole lot here (in Ann Arbor), and so I thought we put ourselves in position, but you gotta finish it. You gotta make some of those plays. In the end, disappointed. We didn’t make it. Disappointed, certainly not defeated. Excited to get back our first one at home.
On the offense against the Michigan defense
It was a good opponent, you know? And then obviously, when you play in an atmosphere like that, there’s obvious challenges. They got some momentum early defensively. I thought we made a couple of lineup changes there, and I thought we handled it there pretty well. For a while, we got to where we were moving pretty good. It’s a good group.
Listen, we made some mistakes. Some of our young guys came in there, made a few mistakes. We just got beat one-on-one a couple of times. They got some pretty good players. I mean, that’s going to happen. But was a good battle in there. Thought we hung in there and fought, but we definitely have to get better.
USC moving forward
The players and coaches in that locker room, the fight that you saw in there — gives me complete confidence.
The offensive drive before Michigan retook the lead late.
I thought it could have been better. I didn’t think I called a very good drive there.
The timeout before halftime, was the ball tipped?
I thought they would review it, because it was such a significant play. And then they told me that they did.
Michigan and Big Ten physicality
I don’t want to make a bunch of big-picture assessments without having a chance to sit there and study it. There were some, it was kind of back and forth. I mean, we had some times when we ran the ball really well. Sometimes we didn’t. They had a couple of big plays, and then we had a lot of times where we were stuffing them in the backfield. So I think it was just kind of a classic back and forth fight, and sort of felt like it on the sidelines.
On Woody Marks making Kenneth Grant fumble after he recovered Moss’ fumble
It was an awesome play, just the fight. I mean, it’s what I would expect out of anybody in our locker room. We’ve had two kind of like that already this year. We had one against LSU as well. That ended up, didn’t play out the same. It was a similar type of play. So again, the question earlier about why I believe in the locker room — plays like that.
Facing Michigan’s defensive front
We had to move Murph over. Again. I don’t want to pass a lot of judgment until I can sit there and study it. I know those guys battled. You know, Murph hasn’t taken a ton at left tackle here this year, and so I thought he came into battle, and I thought Tobias got in there, did some really good things too.
So it’s a talented front, again, challenging atmosphere. I mean, it’s about as tough as it’s going to get. And so a battle certainly, can we be better? Yes, a lot of fight that group.
Special teams against Michigan
Didn’t get a ton out of the return game. Had some opportunities, certainly in the punt return game. And I think that was probably, maybe the biggest negative. I thought there was a couple that we shouldn’t have fair caught, had a chance to return on a couple where we just didn’t quite get the seams that we wanted. Not much activity on kickoff return, just the way the game went. Now, punt team was awesome. I mean, we flipped the field a ton. Guys did a tremendous job on punt (and) Michael was awesome on kickoffs.
His halftime adjustments
There was a few things with some of the O-line lineup changes, not anything drastic. Felt like we had a lot of opportunities during the first half that we missed. So probably more about execution than calls.
Facing Michigan’s offense and lack of passing
They’ve got good players up front. Quarterback’s athletic. I mean the thing that hurt us was just big plays. I mean, we gave up the drives. They had that pick six, and then they had — I think every drive that they got a score on there was an explosive play. I mean, that was the name of the game. I mean, we probably just — didn’t go back and look at it — but, I mean, we probably played, probably one, 80-85% of the defensive snaps, but we lost some of them big. And that’s the mistakes that you can’t make and things that we’ll have to clean up.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Everything USC head coach Lincoln Riley said after Michigan football beat the Trojans
