Lincoln Riley shares high praise for Gary Patterson at media days

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This week marks Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. On Tuesday, USC head coach Lincoln Riley took to the podium for his first press conference of the 2026 season.

One of the questions that Riley was asked was regarding the early impact of new defensive coordinator Gary Patterson. The Trojans’ head coach had nothing but high praise for his DC.

"I've told people I've had a chance throughout my career, calling plays for a little while now, to call plays against a lot of the people that you would say these are the greatest minds of this last era of college football, greatest defensive minds," Riley said. "I've never coached against somebody that I thought was more unique and tougher to go against than Gary Patterson.

"Him doing it with different skill sets, a lot of time the OU versus TCU years that we competed against one another, we had a lot better players than he had top to bottom. They had good players, I don't want to disrespect anybody there, but the talent level was different. He just consistently year after year adapts and coaches and develops in such a unique way. They don't put College Football Hall of Famer behind your name for nothing.

"Yeah, I think we're certainly feeling his impact defensively. I'm certainly feeling his impact of just having a fellow head coach in the building, right, somebody else that has sat in this chair and make some of these decisions. You can't replace that type of expertise and experience that he brings to the table. He's incredibly motivated. He wouldn't have done this without it.

"I think he senses the opportunity, even for a guy that's accomplished just about everything you can in this game, there's a few other things left out there. He knows he can do that here. It's been awesome working with him. I can't wait to get into the season with him and go. But he and our entire staff I think bring a lot of advantages to our program."

After four years away from coaching following a legendary run at TCU, Patterson is entering his first season as USC's defensive coordinator. Now 65 years old, he will look to prove that he still has his fastball and help turn USC's defense into one of the top units in the conference.

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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Lincoln Riley shares high praise for Gary Patterson at media days

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