Riley says USC 'right place for me' and 'I'm the right person to be here'

LOS ANGELES -- With any hope for a spot in the College Football Playoff hanging by a thread after a second loss and plenty of noise regarding his future with USC, coach Lincoln Riley said he continues to believe he is the right individual to lead the program. "Listen, if I didn't want to be at this place, I wouldn't have come here in the first place. I've had plenty of opportunities to leave," Riley said after the Trojans' practice Tuesday. "This is where I want to be. This is the right place for me. I'm the right person to be here. And that's as honest and transparent as I can be with you guys." Riley, who is in Year 5 of his USC tenure and has yet to lead the team to a CFP berth or win a conference title, began his news conference by going out of his way to say he was focused on USC's next opponent -- Ohio State on Saturday -- not on anything else. But when asked about the idea that he might be a better fit at a different school, Riley balked at the notion. "I love it here. I mean like I told you guys a lot of times -- there's not many people in college football history that gave up what I gave up to come here," Riley said. "I don't care if it's 15 years down the line, that never should be taken lightly. It's certainly not taken lightly by me. I came here because I believe in this place and none of that has changed whatsoever." Riley's relationship with athletic director Jen Cohen and their alignment has also been a topic of discussion given she was not the person who hired him. On Tuesday, Riley downplayed any idea of a disconnect between them and said Cohen has been "incredibly supportive" and called their relationship "fantastic." "She's a tremendous AD. Even though she's not the AD I came here with and I'm not the head coach she hired," Riley said. "She's been a huge part of the progress that we've made." Yet despite the progress USC has made as a program -- the Trojans secured the No. 1 recruiting class in the country this year and opened up a new, $200 million facility -- the results have yet to match the expectations Riley has never shied away from, especially not the ones heading into this season. At Big Ten media days, Riley said the Trojans were more equipped than ever to win. USC billboards also went up around Los Angeles before the season with a clear message: "The time is now." But after a defeat to Oregon in Week 4 and a 24-7 loss to Wisconsin on Saturday -- the lowest offensive output for any team ever coached by Riley -- Riley's record since taking the job is now 41-20. And as USC heads into the stretch run with matchups against Ohio State, defending champion Indiana and undefeated UCLA still looming, the Trojans likely need to win out to change the tenor of the season. "There's nobody in the world that wants USC to win more than Coach Riley," offensive lineman Elijah Paige said Tuesday. If there's any urgency or added pressure, Riley has not let on. Instead, as he's done in the past, he referenced Tuesday how when he first was hired as the coach at Oklahoma, he had people wanting to "run me out of town right away" after his first loss to Iowa State in 2017. By the end, with a Big 12 championship in tow and a spot in the playoffs, those same people were going above and beyond to praise him. At USC, however, that level of success has yet to take place. "When you're a head coach of a blue blood school, you have to be ready to weather the storms, the overly positive or the overly negative," Riley said. "Typically, what I've learned from doing this for a few years, I haven't learned it all, but the truth typically lies somewhere in the middle. And that's typically where it's at even if you know that it's going to sensationalize. And so my job is to stay steady."