No. 9 USC focuses on rival Cal’s visit
LOS ANGELES >> For a coach who took three Oklahoma teams to the College Football Playoff, Lincoln Riley sure doesn’t profess much interest in the rankings that are telling the college football world he’s got a shot to get No. 9 Southern California in there as well.
“I don’t even look at them,” Riley said. “Ask all my friends back in Oklahoma. I don’t care about them. Most of the time, I don’t even know what it is, because it doesn’t matter right now. It does not matter one bit. You can be ranked whatever. You go lose, it don’t matter. You keep winning, it takes care of itself . ... It matters none. I spend not 1% of my energy, brain power, attention — I could not care less. I care about it at one time, and that’s the last one. That’s all that matters.”
Those rankings have USC in the same spot as in the AP Top 25, not that Riley would know or care. He’s much more concerned about the Trojans’ visit from struggling California (3-5, 1-4 Pac-12) on Saturday night for another conference showdown on the road to wherever USC (71, 5-1) is going in his debut season.
The Trojans are big favorites against the Golden Bears, but Riley said it’s not difficult to keep his players’ attention on the opponents in front of them, particularly after they returned from their bye with a taxing road victory at Arizona last weekend.
“To be honest, when it’s a program maybe that hasn’t won quite as much as of late, it’s honestly probably a little bit easier right now,” Riley said. “It was probably a little bit tougher at times at the previous spot because we had won so much.”
The Bears have lost four straight and five of six, but coach Justin Wilcox’s program has won two of its last three games with USC. The win at the Coliseum in 2018 ended Cal’s 14-game losing streak against the Trojans. Cal rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit for that 15-14 win.
“We know it’s a really good team,” Wilcox said. “I know it’s very important for our players and our program. It’s a great opportunity, and we know it’ll take a good football game, but our guys are excited to play, and a lot of them are going home to compete and looking forward to it.”