Lincoln Riley is really excited about his new defensive staff at USC

A lot of people in the national college football community are still highly skeptical of Lincoln Riley at USC. The skepticism is very clearly and centrally tied to Riley’s ability to field a good defense and get good defensive results on Saturdays. Riley is aware of this. He thinks his new defensive coaching staff is ready to deliver a better product, as he said to On3 Sports:

“I think we’re continuing to build an identity, especially defensively,” USC head coach Lincoln Riley told On3’s Steve Wiltfong on Wednesday at Big Ten media days. “I’m really excited about some of the prospects that we’re currently recruiting in that class. And excited about the opportunity to go prove it on the field this year. Which that’s — listen, there’s always part of that when you have change. When I became the head coach at Oklahoma, there was a lot of people that kind of doubted it until they saw the product on the field. So, I think our defensive coaches and players are eager, certainly, to go play this year and prove that.

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