FOOTBALL

Lincoln Riley Explains Why USC Practice Canceled

Lincoln Riley said Thursday’s practice was postponed because of injuries at key positions. He said USC will make it up in the final two weeks of spring.

  • Riley said said tight end Duce Robinson’s plan if he is a high major-league baseball draft pick and signs a pro contract, he will still play college football, similar to what Kyler Murray did when he was drafted by the Oakland A’s while he played at Oklahoma.
  • Riley said he would line up Robinson at different spots in the offense.

“I don’t see him (strictly) as a tight end.” Riley said.

That’s one way to avoid throwing to the tight end.

Advertisement

44 thoughts on “Lincoln Riley Explains Why USC Practice Canceled”

  1. You line up a guy where you can best get him the ball. Duce is 6’6″, 235 lbs, nearly 7 foot wingspan. If he lines up at WR, then presumably he will be covered by a 5’11”, 185 lb corner. Good luck with a DB trying to cover a guy that size.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

    1. We will definitely have some very intriguing skill-set players available for next season. My concern is whether will there be enough touches to keep them all happy.

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply

    2. The Ladies of Troy suffered a staggering number of sprained toenails and had to cancel practice.

      Many players were seen using crutches and a few more were in wheelchairs.

      Like

      Reply

  3. So if USC puts Duce at TE, Branch at slot, Mario at Wide out with Rice on the other side and you send Raleek Brown in motion, how do you cover all of that. Everyone with speed goes deep, Duce picks up the first down every time. A nightmare for the DC

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

    1. Exactly steveg49: Or they can line up in a double tight end set and go power with Lloyd or another back. How about shifting out of a power set and putting
      Duce at wide or in the slot. For the next 3 years or possibly more you are going to have a 5* quarterback throwing to two 5* tight ends or multiple 5* receivers coached by the most creative offensive mind in college football. Can’t wait to see it. Remember what the Patriots did when they had Gronk, Aaron Hernandez, Randy Moss and Brady all at the same time. I think it was 17-0 in the regular season.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

    2. Given the formation you mentioned, flex Duce out and this makes the inside backer have to adjust to the TE which opens up the middle. This looks like an obvious pass play, but it’s a quick handoff up the middle….After a while, the defense starts second-guessing reads/keys.

      Riley is building an embarrassment of riches!

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply

      3. agree 100%. i also think by 2024 Jakobi Lane will be a standout. Put him and Duce on the field with Branch and another fast receiver. Riley can develop some interesting tight end sets with the guys he is bringing in or converting.

        Duce is going to be just like Drake London. unstoppable.

        Riley has a formula that can possibly even win the national champion ship…with a little luck.

        Liked by 2 people

  5. I think that SC’s offense will change drammatically now that they have him. There are blocking tight ends and receiving tight ends. SC didn’t throw to thier tight ends last year because they didn’t have any receiving tight ends, at least not any deep receiving tight ends. With this guy, they will change their offense. It just adds one more dimension to their already dangerous offense and makes it even more dangerous than it already is.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      2. Lake was an afterthought, he had 10 catches over 13 games. IMO, the sample size is not worth judging.

        Like

    3. Our 2023 offense will be #1 in scoring and yards per game…. by a lot.
      #It’sNiceToHaveDefense…
      #…ButItDoesn’tMatterIfTheOffenseIsUnstoppable

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Our offense will #1 in the nation this year…..it was #3 in 2022 and this coming years offense will be head and shoulders above last years.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. I think we need to keep the pocket a little cleaner for Celab. We all know he’s Houdini back there, but one blindside hit could be disastrous…

        Like

      3. This years O-Line will be much better than last years. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few O-Linemen transfer out because of the talent SC has on the O-Line. If they stay(or even if they don’t) the competition on the O-Line will be fierce.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. It’s refreshing to see some quality linemen wanting to transfer to USC. If Helton was still around the new players wouldn’t have looked twice at USC.

        Like

      5. Not only transfers but a number of outstanding project recruits not including Elijah Paige who I think is ready to compete right now.

        Like

      7. I knew they wouldn’t make the playoffs the first year(although they almost did). It takes time to rebuild the culture(it took Harbaugh 3 years at Stanford). But it also takes time to rebuild the schools reputation whereby the great athletes want to come there.

        Like

      8. SC just offered this black guy from London England. He looks like a multi talented project who hasn’t play much football. He’s got a 45 1/2 inch vertical leap. That alone is off of the charts. He’s 6’5″ and 230 pounds. He was discovered at an NFL Africa Camp, that landed him at the NFL Academy in London. There are some other good teams going after him. I don’t know how good the NFL academy7 league is but here are some films of him:
        https://247sports.com/Video/Emmanuel-Okoye-NFL-Academy-2022-junior-season-highlights-11614183/
        They say he will be used either as a tight end or a rush end.

        Like

    1. I don’t even think Mark Andrews could take the top off of the defense like this guy can. Like I said….a complete nightmare for any LB or even a strong safety. And if they don’t cover him with a LB or SS, that means the defense will have to go man on all those other great receivers that SC has. Calebs biggest problem this year is going to be deciding which wide open receiver he wants to throw to.

      Like

      Reply

  8. It’s been many years since I have been this enthusiastic about an upcoming season.
    Caleb needs to play smart and protect himself. We all know how the tide turned with the Utah injury along with the help of Grinch

    Like

    Reply

    1. Would like to see Caleb work on more quick releases this year. Many times he seemed to be holding the ball 4 or 5 seconds looking at his receivers. Quick releases should help protect him.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Also something to think about. Asking linemen to maintain a block for 4 to 5 seconds constantly starts to wear down their stamina. When linemen get worn down the lazy holding penalties and sacks start popping up. Plus, the defense is rotating fresh rushers throughout a series.

        Speaking of a quick release, caleb has the one step drop and thows a semi-sidearm quick out. I don’t think there is a QB in country who executes that play with the same quickness and accuracy

        Liked by 1 person

  9. The offense will be better because they will be able to run more plays than the twelve plays they had. Look at the championship game video and watch the defense of Utah only adjust AFTER Riley signals in the play. No excuses, they should be in the playoffs. I expect an undefeated season but can Grinch make a difference? Duce brings speed and big play opportunuity in the middle of the field or against zone coverage. No one in the Pac 12 will be able to cover him man to man in USC’s offense. Brackets, maybe. Wolf knows its the nightmare scenario for other schools.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.