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USC Football: Lincoln Riley Reacts to Trojans Not Being Favored in Big Ten

The Trojans are not favorites for the conference championship.

Sam Garcia

Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports
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Ahead of USC's first season in the Big Ten conference, head coach Lincoln Riley, along with coaches and players from all 18 Big Ten football teams, discussed the upcoming season.

Since the addition of former Pac-12 teams USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington, several media outlets have shared their opinions on how the quartet will adapt to the new conference.

The Trojans have not been a favorite for the conference championship, but that does not affect Riley.

"If you pick against us, I guess we wanna prove you wrong and if you pick us, I wanna justify it," the USC head coach said in a press conference at Big Ten Media Day in Indianapolis. "The more years you go through it you just realize more and more that stuff really doesn't matter. It really has no impact. It's gonna be decided right out here like it should be."

Although Riley has yet to win a national championship throughout his collegiate coaching career, he does boast a long list of accolades that prove his capability of producing champions.

While coaching at Oklahoma, Riley won four Big 12 conference championships and appeared in three College Football Playoffs. In 2018, Riley was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year after leading the Sooners to a Big 12 championship in the same year.

Riley is the only head coach to produce three Heisman trophy caliber quarterbacks. He is also the only collegiate coach to tutor three first overall draft picks.

In Riley's second season with the Trojans, the team broke six USC records. These include most passing yards in a single season (4,969 in 14 games), most passes attempted in a single season (515), most touchdown passes in a single season (43), lowest percentage of passes had intercepted (0.97%, 5 in 515 attempts), most games scoring 30+ points (12) and most games scoring 40+ points (10).

USC will begin their first Big Ten season on September 21 against Michigan.

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Sam Garcia

SAM GARCIA

Samantha Garcia is a student at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is majoring in Psychology and minoring in Professional Writing. She is also a sports writer for the Daily Bruin at UCLA.

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