The USC football team huddles around coach Lincoln Riley during spring practice at USC on March 22. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Almost six months ago, in his first official introduction as USC coach, Lincoln Riley stared out across an empty Coliseum and made a bold promise.
“This place is going to be full,” Riley proclaimed. “This place is going to be the mecca of college football.”
Mecca won’t be built in a matter of months. But we’ll finally catch a glimpse of the progress when USC takes the field Saturday at noon for what’s surely the most anticipated spring game in program history.
That anticipation has been building ever since Riley’s stunning hire in November, so much so that ESPN will broadcast the scrimmage nationally, making USC’s the only spring game to get such exposure. The school is doing its part, too, to capitalize on that enthusiasm, making tickets free to fans in hopes of turning an otherwise glorified practice into a spring football extravaganza, complete with carnival games, food trucks, photo ops and giveaways.
That’s all just window dressing, of course, to what most fans will come out or tune in to see — tangible, firsthand proof that Riley is righting the ship at USC.
The Trojans’ new coach knows they won’t wait long for those expectations to be met.
“People, as you learn, particularly in this town, they want to support winners,” Riley said this week. “They want to support excellence. They want to support success. We understand that. We don’t shy away from that.”
None of that will be clear after a single scrimmage. But after a spring of closed practices, the spring game should offer some answers to the many questions we still have about USC football at the start of a new era.
How many fans will show up?
USC football players enter the field before a game against BYU at the Coliseum on Nov. 27, 2021. (Ashley Landis / Associated Press)
By the end of last season, vast swaths of empty bleachers became the sad norm…