Can the Aggies challenge USC? What Lincoln Riley said about an upset bid by USU

USC isn’t going to take Utah State lightly. At least that is the hope of Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley.
In a wide-ranging interview with Trojans Live, Riley spoke about the upcoming matchup between his No. 13-ranked USC team and Utah State.
“They’ve obviously had some coaching changes and turnover,” Riley said of the Aggies, “but looked like they handled that well and really settled in and played a good first game, especially in the second half.”
Riley didn’t go into a great deal of specifics about Utah State — mostly he spoke about USC’s impressive season-opening win over LSU in Las Vegas — but he did talk directly about USU backup quarterback Bryson Barnes, who filled in for Aggie starter Spencer Petras after Petras left Utah State’s season opener against Robert Morris with an ankle sprain.
Barnes has a history with USC going back to his time at the University of Utah. Just last season, Barnes led the Utes to a 34-32 win over then-No. 18 USC in Los Angeles and was fairly effective in the game too, completing 14 of 23 pass attempts for 235 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 57 yards and a score.
“Really good player,” Riley said. “Obviously we know. Got to see him last year. They (Utah State) have some really good skill position kids around him. Were very productive offensively in their first game.”
As noted by Riley, the Aggies — despite three interceptions — racked up 646 total yards of offense last weekend, 343 through the air and an additional 303 on the ground. That was tied for the ninth-most yards in school history.
Barnes specifically was responsible for 198 of the passing yards and 88 of the rushing yards, most of which came in the second half when the Aggies outscored Robert Morris 26-0.
On paper, an offense like Utah State’s could pose a threat to the Trojans, especially considering the type of defenses USC fielded the last couple of seasons.
In the win over LSU, however, USC was significantly improved on the defensive end, a byproduct of better fundamentals, Riley said.
“I think our guys are in position (on defense),” he said, “and they are understanding where their help is. I think they are playing a little bit better fundamentally. When you close down lanes in the run game, guys are going to be better tacklers. When you have good (running) backs and you give them a ton of space, I don’t care how good your guys are, they aren’t going to be as good of tacklers. You are going to miss some tackles the bigger the space is, and it is harder for guys to break tackles when that space is really condensed down.”
Riley continued: “We had a couple coverage busts (against LSU) … that hurt us, so there are a couple of things in the pass game that we have to be much better at.”
Ultimately, Riley made it clear he believes the biggest challenge awaiting USC this weekend is focus. The Trojans need to put their win over LSU behind them and focus on Utah State, otherwise the Aggies may pull off a notable upset.
“It is going to be important,” Riley said. “That is the dangerous thing (not putting the win over LSU behind them). Every week you are always fighting something. You are never going to have a week where there’s not something you had to address or push against. That will be the challenge for us. Everybody now wants to write all about how the season is going to go, and Week 1 you can always guarantee there are way too many overreactions.
“We’ve gotta be appreciative of the win. We are excited about the win and we should be. You own the good but you own the bad too. The things that gotta be corrected. If we want to be the football program that we think we can, we have to understand there is a long journey ahead and we only get so many of these. We have to be ready to go, man. It is a relentless game. Every week you see teams where you think they’ll beat this team by that or that, and that is why everybody says all the time that’s why you play. We know that we are going to get everybody’s best shot and this week is going to be no different.”