USC football grateful for ‘massive progress’ as it opens first Big Ten preseason camp

USC coach Lincoln Riley talks with quarterback Miller Moss (7) during the Trojans’ spring game. Riley has not named a starting quarterback, but Moss enters preseason camp as the favorite to win the job, (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The sun was just peeking over the USC campus Friday morning as Lincoln Riley made his way down the ramp from the McKay Center, twirling a whistle in his right hand, thinking about all that had changed in his time as the Trojans’ coach. This date — Aug. 2 — was circled on calendars across campus for more than two years after USC stunned the college sports world by announcing its move with UCLA to the Big Ten.

So many steps had been taken to prepare for this moment, so many logistics maneuvered, so many hurdles overcome, that it was easy in the moment, amid the swirling tides of a conference transition, to take for granted the new dawn now officially upon USC.

“It’s good to be back,” Riley said, just as the doors to USC’s practice field swung open.

Alas, very little was the same Friday as when Riley last left it last season, down to the yellow “B1G” logo on his red cutoff sweatshirt. Given how the last USC season ended, no one seemed to mind.

It wasn’t all that long ago that USC opened the McKay Center, lauding it at the time as a $70-million beacon of innovation for its football program. But the facility arms race in college football had already rendered it obsolete by the time Riley arrived. Now, at the start of his third season, a new turf practice field gleamed in the distance, where USC’s baseball field used to stand, a precursor to a $200-million performance center soon to be erected on the adjacent lot.

The facility, which Riley said was central to him accepting the job in 2021, won’t be finished until 2026.

“It’s just another obvious sign of massive…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/usc-football-grateful-massive-progress-205809577.html

Author : LA Times

Publish date : 2024-08-02 20:58:09

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