Lake McRee injury update: USC tight end's status after big hit

Where things stand with USC Trojans tight end Lake McRee, according to Lincoln Riley.

USC Trojans football player Lake McRee was on the receiving end of a tough hit in last week's loss to Michigan. / John Leyba-Imagn Images

USC Trojans tight end Lake McRee suffered what appeared to be a brutal injury in last week’s loss to Michigan, but head coach Lincoln Riley offered a more hopeful prognosis for the player.

“Yeah, we got good news,” Riley told reporters. “He’s going to be back this year. He won’t be back for sure probably for the next couple of weeks. But some really positive news given the hit.”

McRee was injured moments after catching a pass in the third quarter of last week’s Big Ten opener, having his legs cut out from under him as he turned upfield to run his pattern.

The result of the collision appeared to show that McRee hyper-extended his knee in an awkward direction, and he was unable to run to the sideline without first going down to the field.

McRee was visibly emotional and in tears after having been escorted by trainers to the team’s injury tent.

Riley doesn’t fault the Michigan tackler who made the play, but doesn’t care for the rule that allows that kind of stop.

“It’s legal right now, but a hit like that does not need to be legal,” he said.

“Like, you think all the things in college football and football in general that we’ve cleaned up, it’s very simple to clean up a defenseless player that you can’t see and you go low on him.”

Riley said that McRee was lucky to not be more seriously injured.

“What happened to Lake, honestly, he’s incredibly lucky,” he said.

“You see it in the NFL and you see it in our game, and that’s something that needs to get some attention to get cleaned up. That makes the game no better and that’s something that just should not happen in my opinion.”

In his absence, USC will look elsewhere to distribute the ball in the passing game. McRee led the Trojans with 9 receptions for 137 yards prior to his injury.

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