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As an aspiring young quarterback at Muleshoe High in the early 2000s, Lincoln Riley attended a football camp at Texas Christian University, run by a coach known even then as a mastermind of defense, a man whose ideas and 4-2-5 scheme would one day be disseminated across college football.<\/p>\n
Gary Patterson had just been elevated from defensive coordinator to head coach at TCU, a job he would occupy for the next two decades. Around the same time, his staff saw something in Riley. They talked briefly about giving him a shot at safety on Patterson\u2019s vaunted TCU defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeedless to say,\u201d Riley told The Oklahoman in 2018, \u201cit didn\u2019t turn out.\u201d<\/p>\n
But a quarter-century after first crossing paths at that camp, it\u2019s now the young quarterback giving the old ball coach a chance to prove himself.<\/p>\n
USC opens the Bloom Football Performance Center, part of a $225-million athletics infrastructure project promised to Lincoln Riley when he was hired.<\/p>\n
When USC announced it was hiring Patterson as Riley\u2019s defensive coordinator in January, ears perked up across college football. On one hand, Patterson, 66, is a freshly minted College Football Hall of Famer and one of the great defensive minds of the modern era. On the other hand, he hasn\u2019t led a college football team since 2021, when he was forced out at TCU, and a lot has changed in the sport since. Not to mention it\u2019s been more than 25 years since Patterson last served as a coordinator.<\/p>\n
Those were fair concerns, considering all that\u2019s riding on Riley getting it right with Patterson, his third defensive coordinator in five seasons. But after seven months with him on the job, you won\u2019t find anyone at USC \u2014 players, coaches or administrators alike \u2014 with an ounce of distress over Patterson\u2019s stamina.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I would have had more reservations had I not known him,\u201d Riley said. \u201cBut that fire still burns very, very hot.\u201d<\/p>\n
That much was obvious in the spring when Patterson jumped into the middle of a tackling circuit to teach proper technique, and ended up running through the whole drill. He even delivered a blow at the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knocked the guy back,\u201d said safeties coach Paul Gonzales, who coached with Patterson for a decade at TCU. \u201cFor a 60-year old guy, he still got some pop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riley is betting big on that translating to the Trojans\u2019 defense this fall. Over his four seasons as USC\u2019s coach, there\u2019s no mistaking what\u2019s held Riley back from reaching the same heights at USC as he had at Oklahoma. The Trojans finished 124th, 104th, 87th and 65th in yards allowed per play during those years.<\/p>\n
At TCU, Patterson\u2019s defenses finished No. 1 in yards allowed five times during a 10-year stretch. Yet in the second half of his tenure at TCU, there was a noticeable decline, as his defenses finished in the top 25 of that same category just twice.<\/p>\n
It was during that time that Riley\u2019s offense went toe-to-toe with Patterson\u2019s defense on numerous occasions. Riley, who was in his first head coaching job at Oklahoma, got the better of Patterson in each of their four meetings, piling up at least 498 total yards each time out.<\/p>\n