Lincoln Riley says USC has 'no excuses' in spite of recent flu outbreak
Lincoln Riley wants this Saturday night to be all about his USC program trying to beat its crosstown Los Angeles rival.
The Trojans head coach doesn’t want the narrative to be that his team wasn’t up to the task against UCLA because of a recent flu outbreak. USC is trying to make the most of the end of a mostly lost season, as it heads into the showdown at the Rose Bowl with a 5-5 overall record and a 3-5 Big Ten record in its first season in the conference.
UCLA is in a similar boat, by the way, with a 4-6 record to go with the same 3-5 Big Ten record.
“It’s had a little bit of an impact,” said Riley of the flu outbreak during his Tuesday press conference. “Just part of it, though. It’s like I told the guys, Saturday at 7:30 nobody’s going to care what you had or didn’t have. You’ve got to be ready to go play the game. You have different obstacles that come up, and you’ve got to go face them. We’ll deal with it, adjust how we need to, but no excuses. You’ve got to be ready for Saturday.”
Riley was asked how the outbreak has been for his team this week.
“Most of the people, it’s been running its course in 48-72 hours,” he said. “So, I think we’re thinking (Tuesday) is probably the peak of it, and I think we’ll get better from here.”
The LA rivals will kick things off at 10:30 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. PT) on NBC. ESPN’s FPI matchup predictor actually gives Riley’s Trojans a good chance to win, flu outbreak and all, as USC has a 74.1% chance to prevail in Pasadena.