USC Trojans coach Lincoln Riley addressed reporters' questions on Thursday morning for the final time before the team will host the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday.

While previewing the Buckeyes' quarterback situation after Ohio State coach Ryan Day has been coy in naming a starter, Riley's comments on wide receiver Jeremiah Smith stand out. Known to be one of the better offensive minds in college football, developing three Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks and sending NFL signal-callers and wide receivers to the NFL, Riley compared Smith to a former Texas Tech receiver from the 2000s.

"Jeremiah is a tremendous player. I would say, you know, I haven't been on the field with him yet. But certainly just watching him through the years and and and then getting a chance to study him a little bit more in depth this week, you see, you know, a really unique player. And I think he's gotten better this year. You know, playing obviously very consistent. He's explosive. He's good after the catch."

"So, yeah, I mean, you know, I think great players like that, you know, I don't know that you're ever going to, you know, just completely shut somebody down or out, right? But you got to try to minimize the damage. And I think that's really important with him. You know trying to obviously trying to stay on top of him you know because he's so good down the field and the other thing he's really good at at is after the catch."

"And so you got to do a great job of surrounding him you know making the catches or touches that he does get tough and then getting him on the ground which that's going to be super important. In terms of anybody I've seen, I mean you know the most dominant player that I've ever been around or coached was Michael Crabtree. And I there's been a lot great receivers you know in college football over the last you know 20, 30 years."

"Crabtree is the best one that I've ever seen in person and just in terms of just being just dominant at the college level, and you know Jeremiah may be the the closest thing to that you know that I've seen in a while. So he's you know give him his credit. He's a really good player. You know we got to do a good job of making things tough for him on Saturday."

Crabtree caught 134 passes for 1,962 yards and 22 touchdowns, leading all Division I receivers in the 2008 season with those marks. A year prior in 2007, the former Texas Tech star logged 97 receptions for 1,165 yards, and 19 touchdowns.

In seven games this season with Ohio State, Smith has 52 receptions for 984 yards and 12 touchdowns. As a sophomore in 2025, the Buckeyes receiver finished with 87 catches, 1,243 yards, and 12 touchdowns.

Crabtree was an All-American in both seasons, and Smith is likely on his way to achieving the same feat.

Everything Lincoln Riley Said

Ohio State Buckeyes Defense

"Yeah, you know (defensive coordinator Matt) Patricia's come in there and done a really nice job. You you can certainly tell the the influence of him over the last couple of years and what they've done schematically. And they they certainly have the ability to to vary it up. You know, they're not a group that looks exactly the same, you know, down in and down out or game in and game out."

"There's definitely some variability too how they how they want to attack and use their their skill sets and like you said, they've got good skill sets obviously, but you can certainly see, you know, his influence coming from the professional level and a varied attack that from the outside looking in, looks like they try to keep offenses guessing and they've done a nice job of that so far. So, yeah, very well coached group and a lot of talented players."

Preparing for Two Quarterbacks

"On the quarterbacks, I mean, obviously, you know, we know they've got two guys obviously that we could see whether it's, you know, one or the other, you know, in total or they have packages for either one. I mean, obviously after the combination of them having a bye week and then, you know, we know they're going to have a new one, right? Regardless of who it is."

"And so, you know, you've got to be ready for all those things. Certainly weather could be a factor, as well. So, yeah, I mean, there is an element to this, not as much, but there is an element to that part of it that almost feels like a like a first game of the season, right?"

"Like I think there's an expectation that they'll there'll probably be some sort of adjustment in some way. And we'll have to do a good job handling that. And I think that'll be one of the keys, I'm sure, to this matchup is they're going to have a new guy back there and we've got to make life really tough on them."

"And then our ability to adjust to anything that they try to do differently with these new quarterbacks, you know, will be the way we'll be tested. So, you know, I think that'll go a long ways in determining how that, you know, SC defense, Ohio State offensive matchup goes."

Improvements in Passing Defense

"And yeah, in terms of our pass defense, I mean, I think we've done a good job getting more pressure on the quarterback, which that's always a pass defense's best friend."

"I think we have gotten stickier and tighter in coverage. I think as our guys have gotten more settled in, as we've gotten a little bit more healthy back there, and I just think we've kind of eliminated some of the mistakes in the passing game. We've played more sticky even when there's been completions. Typically, we've had people there and pass rush has gotten better. And when you do all those things, you're going to defend the pass better."

Who in the Secondary Has Stood Out

"Yeah, you know, it's been great having Alex Graham back. I think Alex has impacted us and I think that's also helped Kennedy (Urlacher) too, just because those guys also play, you know, roles for us on special teams. And I think those guys being able to kind of spell each other has been helpful. You know, I think getting some of the corners back kind of healthy and going, you know, Jontez (Williams) has been pretty steady for us."

"I think, you know, both Rock (Elbert Hill) and Chasen (Johnson) and Marcelles (Williams), some of those guys have really improved. And then then I think the steadiness of of (Christian) Pierce and Prophet (Brown) has been a big help there as well. I mean I think they're obviously they've played the majority of snaps for us. I think they're very keyed in to to what we're doing, how we're trying to attack, communicating well. So I just think we're operating in sync maybe much better than we were early on."

Offensive Line Confidence

"I think we're fortunate that while we did not play to our standard last week offensively, we got a long long list of games where we've been pretty dominant, gotten after people and played pretty good on that side of the ball and played pretty good up front. So, I think, you know, with a lot of the guys that we've had that played a lot of football, it's not hard to find obviously good examples and success and good positive memories, right?"

"All that stuff. That's not hard to find around here. So we got to play better there. Our group knows it. We got to play better all over the place offensively. But if this group responds anyway, like I think they will, then we'll play well. And this group has a long history of doing that."

Entering the Game With Trumain Carroll

"Yeah, when we kind of talked with this team early on in the season about how we wanted to take the field, kind of this team's personality. Just kind of with our leadership and our staff, we we put together kind of a plan of how we wanted to enter the field, which as you guys have seen has been a little bit different this year. And yeah, I think that was something that was important to me that along with some of the the leaders that we select each week that that are kind of in that front line."

"You know, that that coach Tru is there just because of the role he has in the program. He is he's instrumental obviously in the development of the bodies but very instrumental in I think just the development of the people, the development of the mindset, the mentality. I think he's such a consistent guy. He does a great job of holding our players to the standard, holding them in terms of accountability."

"It's just there's never any gray area with this guy, and it's wildly consistent day after day and I think there's an appreciation for that. So, it's obviously a super important position in college football. You know, we feel like we got one of the best and having him out there up front with us was would only be fitting."

Importance of Establishing the Run

"Yeah, you you honestly probably said it as good as I could answer the question, Sean. I mean, yeah, certainly now when we're at our best, we're able to to do all those things and and make people defend all parts of the field and all different styles of plays. And then, you know, that's typically in offensive football in my opinion when you can start to dictate the terms of the game."

"And so, yeah, if any any part of that's not working the way it needs to, then it puts strain on the other areas as well. So, no, it it'll be super important. It's a very good defense. You know, they've obviously defended the run, you know, very well this year. And so, uh, yeah, it'll be it'll be wildly important. We need to do a much better job of it. Our players know that. And again, like you said, when we're kind of multifaceted, we're pretty tough to defend, and we've got to do that very well on Saturday."

Prevent Wisconsin Loss from Snowballing

"Yeah, I mean, I think it's there's definitely an educational piece to that. Where you know and I think I would imagine what you're referring to and and kind of what we see at times is you know you have a a tough set of plays or something doesn't go your way and right what's your what's your response to that right is your response 'Oh well now I'm going to go outside the framework of my job or the offense or defense or special teams to try to make a play to try to make up for it?'"

"And typically when you do that, it flips and goes the other direction right, and it's not a positive result, and you've got to just stay with it. It's something that you certainly preach, but at the same time I fully recognize it. You get out in the arena, especially on the road, you feel some of those different emotions and and the competitive juices and you've got to stay true to it. And I think especially for older players are guilty of it, too."

"But I think especially with as many young players as we're playing right now, right, that's that's where we need these guys to kind of really grow up in the second half of the season and understand that like look, 'You've been in some of these different environments now, you've been in good situations, you've been adverse situations. When we stay true to who we are and we continue to do what we do, then we typically get good results. And when we don't, all right, it can actually it can make it even worse.'"

So, I think you've got to educate them. You got continue to teach. There's so many teachable moments across this. And when it's something that just from a team standpoint, you have to do a great job of in those tough moments."

"And, we've had some examples of us doing that and doing it very well. You know, what's kind of ironic is we did it so well, you know, a couple of weeks prior. But this is a week to week season, man. And so all that matters is that day, that game. And so we got to do a great job applying those lessons here on Saturday."

Sensing Any Burnout

"No, I mean, I just think it's one of those things that listen, when you when you don't win a game, you know, all these questions and all these things are going to come up and I just, you know, I can you sense it if that's happening? Yes, I think you can sense that."

"Do I sense this with that with our team leading into Wisconsin leading into this? Absolutely not. Like I know you guys aren't at our practices, or if you guys were at our practices, you would have absolutely zero thought about that. But no, this team, I mean, you go turn on the tape. Our guys played hard as hell. You know, we just we have to play better. We have to play cleaner. And if we do that, then we're a pretty good football team."

King Miller's Explosiveness, Running Style Change

"Yeah, I don't see a ton of differences in his game. I mean I think I certainly feel a difference in physicality. You know he's dealt with a few things physically this year kind of in that middle part of the season from kind of right before the Oregon game and for a couple of weeks there where he was obviously still able to play but wasn't quite his usual explosive self. I feel like that's starting to kind of come back around in terms of his ability to pop it. But he's had a couple big ones. Obviously had a big one early in the Washington game."

"But no, it's it's something that, you know, I know I kind of spoke on that the other day. We missed some opportunities in the run game against uh against Wisconsin in the first half that that were huge, huge opportunities. It certainly wasn't all him, but we need to be better there. We need to create some explosive runs."

"I mean that that takes so much pressure off of the other parts of your offense when you can uh you know when you can create that and so you know we're eager to get that done. He is too. And you know when we get those opportunities we've got to hit those pitches."

Offensive Line Tipping Plays

"Yeah, I got asked this a few weeks ago. No. I something we're pretty aware of. I mean, we study our guys a lot. And so not something that I would really I think sit here and just over over talk about, but it's something we're very conscious of. I can promise you that."