Everything Lincoln Riley said from the podium at Big Ten Media Days

USC head coach Lincoln Riley addressed reporters from the podium at Big Ten Media Days on Tuesday. Here’s a full transcript of everything Riley said, via ASAP Sports.

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LINCOLN RILEY: Great to be back here, Big Ten media days representing USC. It’s been a tremendous off-season, and this day certainly brings a lot of momentum and excitement in terms of fall camp and everything that’s right on the horizon.

When I think about our football program right now going into this fifth year, going into this season, I think about our alignment and the momentum behind our program. Kind of watching us through the last few years taking on some of the different challenges and changes that we’ve had, a new coaching staff, a new president, a new A.D., a new conference, most recently moving into the Bloom Football Facility about 10 days ago, we’ve had so much change.

Right now I feel like our alignment is as strong as it’s ever been. I think that’s why some of the results throughout the off-season have kind of shown themselves in terms of the way that we’ve recruited, bringing in the top recruiting class in the country, the way that we’ve been able to retain and also add to our coaching staff, especially bringing in noted coordinators Gary Patterson on defense and Mike Ekeler on special teams.

Very proud and excited of the roster we’ve built. I know our recruiting class has certainly got a lot of attention. When you look at some of the returners we have, we have some of the most experienced group in the country. Returning starting quarterback, both starting running backs, an offensive line and defense that I think have depth and talent unlike any of my first four years at USC.

I got a great vantage point in my years at Oklahoma of what great alignment, what steady leadership really looks like in a program. I can sit here today and say really for the first time at USC I feel all of those things are operating at a high level and are very, very steady right now. With that, the momentum has been created.

It’s been fun to see our program grow in all the areas that you need to be a championship-level program. So certainly excited about the season, excited to get back in the Coliseum for a great home slate.

I think one of the big keys for us early on has been reestablishing our dominance in the Coliseum, reestablishing the Coliseum as a tough place for our opponents to come in and play. Obviously we did a tremendous job of going 7-0 last year in our home slate. That will be important again with a great set of games in the Coliseum.

The way our conference is structured now, we’re looking forward to the opportunity to go through some of these different venues across the Big Ten, to play in some of these different games against great competition.

We certainly have an exciting schedule ahead, and one that our team is very much looking forward to attacking. Cannot wait for the season. Can’t wait to get started.

With that we’ll take you guys’ questions.

Q. You mentioned bringing in Coach Ekeler. What can you say about the energy, the passion, the fun? There’s a million words to describe. Talk a little bit about what he’s brought to the program.

LINCOLN RILEY: Coach Ekeler was a great addition. Somebody whose career I followed. We’ve worked either with or for several of the same people. I feel like I knew him pretty well.

He has a special teams track record that is up there in terms of any other coordinator in the country. Yeah, his energy, his attention to detail, I think his emphasis on the fundamentals and how he teaches that is very unique.

It was just something that fit for our program, from our special teams fit, from him also being involved in coaching our linebackers. I think it was a huge addition for us.

Special teams are certainly obviously a huge part of any championship team. With the roster we’ve built, we feel like we have a chance to be very, very good there across the board. A guy like that I think makes you better the day he walked in the door. We certainly felt that energy, excitement and expertise up to this point.

Q. Why did you choose to bring these three players? Would you make a few comments about each.

LINCOLN RILEY: Sure, yeah.

Obviously printout Jayden Maiava, our starting quarterback. He certainly has established himself as a leader on our football team, one of the best quarterbacks in the country.

Of all the guys I’ve been fortunate enough to coach, I don’t know that I’ve had any that have improved from day one to this point as much as Jayden has. It’s been fun to see him grow as a player and leader, starting to embrace what it means to be the starting quarterback at USC. I think a guy that’s just going to get better and better in his prime to play his best football.

Jide Abasiri, a guy that we recruited from Minnesota that came in a few years ago, was a developmental player that has worked his tail off to become one of the best defensive linemen in our league. A versatile player. He’s a guy that does everything right in our program. He’s always on time, never misses anything. Stayed steady throughout his entire career.

I think he’s a great example to a lot of guys out there that don’t maybe have the dream season right away in the beginning. You stay with it, stay steady, that’s what he’s done. That’s why he’s representing us today.

Alex VanSumeren, a transfer that came in, one of the guys we identified once he jumped in the portal in terms of not only his experience but his play style and his leadership capability. We felt like defensively and specifically in our defensive line room, we have a lot of talent in that room. We have more talent and depth than any time during my time at SC. I think having a leader, (indiscernible) that has the experience and mentality that Alex does was very, very key.

Honestly it was kind of fun because we had a lot of really good choices in terms of guys to bring. But proud to have those three representing USC football today.

Q. You mentioned the schedule, future schedule, non-conference schedule. Anything changed with Notre Dame in the future?

LINCOLN RILEY: I don’t think anything more than to say I would just reference my comments earlier in the winter. I think I gave everybody a pretty clear indication of how those have went. Nothing’s changed from my vantage point. We want to play the game. I want to play the game. We would be playing the game had some things come true that were said. Hopefully we get to that point.

Obviously we want it to happen. I know our fan base wants it to happen. College football wants it to happen. Hopefully I’m up here next year talking about that game here on the future schedule. We’ll keep making progress and let you know if we have any more updates.

Q. With the level of expectations that are coming into this season, when you look at all of the recruits and everybody you have coming back, how imperative is it for you not only to be successful and finish strong this season, but also get into the College Football Playoff and make a strong push in that area?

LINCOLN RILEY: It’s what it’s supposed to feel like here. I’ve said this multiple times. I mean, the only two places that I’ve been a head coach at were blue blood schools that have the highest of expectations. Honestly, I’ve really not known anything different. We’re a product of our own experiences. That’s been mine.

Every year I expect to win, I expect us to win. I expect us to compete for and win championships. That doesn’t change.

I certainly will give you what has changed. We’re more equipped than at any point in the previous few years. That’s not a hope or wish, those are facts. There’s a lot of facts to back that up.

It all stems from the first two things I said: the alignment and momentum in the program is real, palpable. We feel it. Our recruits feel it. Our team feels it. Our fan base feels it. I think a lot of people across the country feel it, whether they like us or not. That’s how it should be at USC.

In some ways these years all feel the same, but I think that’s the one area I will give you that does feel different, why there’s certainly a lot of excitement and confidence around our program.

Q. You’ve talked a lot about why you hired Coach Gary Patterson to be your defensive coordinator. How has that affected your offense?

LINCOLN RILEY: Yeah, it’s tougher to move the ball in practice (smiling). Coach Patterson is one of one. I’ve told people I’ve had a chance throughout my career, calling plays for a little while now, to call plays against a lot of the people that you would say these are the greatest minds of this last era of college football, greatest defensive minds. I’ve never coached against somebody that I thought was more unique and tougher to go against than Gary Patterson.

Him doing it with different skill sets, a lot of time the OU versus TCU years that we competed against one another, we had a lot better players than he had top to bottom. They had good players, I don’t want to disrespect anybody there, but the talent level was different. He just consistently year after year adapts and coaches and develops in such a unique way. They don’t put College Football Hall of Famer behind your name for nothing.

Yeah, I think we’re certainly feeling his impact defensively. I’m certainly feeling his impact of just having a fellow head coach in the building, right, somebody else that has sat in this chair and make some of these decisions. You can’t replace that type of expertise and experience that he brings to the table. He’s incredibly motivated. He wouldn’t have done this without it.

I think he senses the opportunity, even for a guy that’s accomplished just about everything you can in this game, there’s a few other things left out there. He knows he can do that here. It’s been awesome working with him. I can’t wait to get into the season with him and go. But he and our entire staff I think bring a lot of advantages to our program.

Q. USC has a lot of returning starters coming back this season. You couple that with some of the class that you add, the ’26 and ’25 class. Would you say this is the most complete team? The offensive line essentially is returning. Would you say this is the most complete from the trenches inside-out on both sides?

LINCOLN RILEY: Yeah, I think that would be a great way to characterize our roster right now. I do think there’s certainly the talent from top to bottom, the competitive depth. I told somebody the other day, I felt like last year we got to the point with our offensive line, our top groups on offense and on our defensive line were able to compete at the top of this conference.

I think that was largely the case. When we got to some of our down-the-line pieces there as we had injuries and all that you deal with throughout the season, you could see we still had some depth issues that we needed to attack because we weren’t quite as good when that happened.

I do feel differently this year in terms of the quality of players, returning starters, the freshmen, some of the transfers that we’ve added. There’s just a ton of competition. We have a lot of guys on both sides of the line of scrimmage that we feel like we can win with and dominate with. We just do.

I think that’s certainly one of the biggest differences in this football team right now.