After 5 seasons as head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners, Lincoln Riley coaches a brand new staff, the USC Trojans, for the primary time in his profession in 2022. During a latest dialog on Always College Football, host Greg McElroy requested Riley areas the place he thought he might have achieved higher at Oklahoma. McElory has his personal experiences with elite-level school soccer, which led to an attention-grabbing dialog between the 2.
“It has challenged me in different ways and it’s good to me,” Riley said. “It’s opened up areas when I look back at my time at Oklahoma where I could have done better, without a doubt. You are always trying to push the right buttons with the team and get the team in the best mindset you can. It’s a tight line, a tight rope to walk. But I think being in this situation has pushed me to be better, exposed areas where I could have been better at OU, and has given me confidence that I will be better. And I know I will need to be better for my guys at USC.”
In 5 seasons at Oklahoma, Riley was 55-10 together with a 1-3 file in bowl video games. Riley was additionally requested if he believes USC is able to compete with the elites in school soccer given the Trojans’ incoming transfer to the Big Ten Conference by 2024.
“One-hundred percent,” Riley mentioned. “There actually has been — what was intriguing about that is there was zero hesitation to take action. It’s a program that may be very proud and it needs to be. The historical past is nearly as good because it will get within the is sport. But it has been humbled. And you’re feeling that. There are some issues this system wanted to do from a useful resource and facility standpoint. The setting is correct and the items are there. But it’s a must to proceed to adapt with school soccer.
“With all that is changing in college football right now, there is no university and program in my opinion that can benefit from the recent changes in college football more than USC. We all know college football typically sits in the bucket of smaller-market towns, very good academics and up-and-down programs. That’s typically, you could put about 90% of college football programs. This one is very unique. The elite academics and big market. It’s primed. Everybody around here feels that. It’s very, very primed. And now there is a lot of work to be done.”
The transfer largely places the way forward for the Pac-12 as an entire into query. USC and UCLA carry among the largest weight within the Pac-12 as two of the most important colleges within the league.
The Trojans’ soccer program is without doubt one of the most embellished within the historical past of the game. USC has received 11 nationwide championships — most lately coming in 2004 — and 39 convention titles.
story by The Texas Tribune Source link