Lincoln Riley has a lot to handle right now. His USC Trojans were already struggling with their performance this season, and now they’re dealing with some serious lineup issues. Star defensive end Anthony Lucas suffered a leg injury during their game against Minnesota two weeks ago, and with him out, the Trojans are scrambling to find someone to step up. There was some hope that Lucas might return soon, but recent updates suggest otherwise. Riley has even started dropping names of possible replacements for Lucas.

Despite getting injured, Lucas was observed participating in some plays for the Trojans in their recent game against Penn State. But now Anthony will remain out for the rest of the season as he will be going up for surgery. In a clip posted by USCAthletics on October 15, head coach Lincoln Riley confirmed the news, saying, “We lost Anthony for the season. Yeah, Anthony had to have a procedure done this morning on his leg, so we won’t have him anymore this year.” Now, Riley is in a tough spot with finding someone to take his place.

Following this, the Trojans HC also mentioned who could be a possible fit for the team after Anthony’s exit from the rooster in their upcoming games. “Well, I mean, you’ve got the handful of guys that we’ve been playing with on the edge already that are going to get opportunities and potentially more opportunities, and then we’ll certainly look at some of the young guys like Kam Fountain, [Lorenzo] Cowan that have been working behind the scenes,” he said. Let’s see if Lincoln Riley’s choice of players can successfully replace Lucas or not.

However, it’s sure a tough blow for USC to lose Anthony Lucas, who has been a key contributor this season. He’s their go-to edge rusher, playing 231 defensive snaps and making 16 tackles. Hopefully, he’ll be back to full strength next year. In the meantime, we’ll see how the Trojans fare without him, relying on their HC’s optimistic approach.

Lincoln Riley supporting his team

The USC Trojans are not coming off quite well under head coach Lincoln Riley this season. Their recent loss against Penn State has put them on a 3-win, 3-lose streak in the game. This is quite surprising! Riley has never lost more than two games in a single season during his time at Oklahoma. Now, that’s a bit concerning. However, Lincoln Riley doesn’t seem much bothered by his team’s poor performance in the season.

After last week’s loss, Riley highlighted the fact that he still doesn’t think there is any reason to panic, as they know where they are standing. “To me, you don’t change now. Like, hell no. We’re not doing that. We believe in what we’re doing. We believe in what we’re building,” said the Trojans HC. He even stood by his team and supported them as they were getting trolled by the fans and critics, saying, “We know we have a good football team. We don’t need other people’s opinions or what they think. We know we have a good team.”

Riley seems to favor a positive approach, focusing on motivation rather than criticism. Now, we’ll see if this ‘optimistic strategy’ pays off, especially with a key defensive player out due to injury.