LOS ANGELES — When Lincoln Riley stepped onto the practice field this past Sunday at the start of his second spring as USC’s football coach, the task in front of him felt a bit less daunting than it did a year ago.
The foundation of the program was already formed, the core beliefs already ingrained, the processes put into place. There were fewer questions to answer, fewer details to address.
“You have a sense that we’re building upon something now as opposed to just starting something,” Riley said Tuesday. “Now it’s time to really build. And I think our guys sense that. I think there’s certainly a lot less new, but at the same time, we’ve pushed the guys to understand that what was acceptable 12 months ago is not necessarily acceptable now.”
