STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Lincoln Riley allowed himself a moment to soak it all in. As Penn State fans trickled out of Beaver Stadium disappointed following No. 19 USC's 31-23 win over the Nittany Lions in the annual White Out game, Riley sat on the visiting bench and eyed the scoreboard.
"One of my favorite wins as a head coach, no question," Riley said postgame. "The environment is kind of a moment you don't want to end. What our team did here tonight is really, really, really difficult to do."
A week ago, as USC struggled with Washington at home, some fans could be heard booing at the Coliseum; others chanted for Riley to be fired. The Trojans were able to beat Washington and after taking down Penn State Saturday, the few USC fans that made the trek to Happy Valley and stuck around began chanting Riley's name.
"I don't listen to anything the fans chant," Riley said with a chuckle. "I bet they chant something different now back in LA."
During Riley's tenure, USC has struggled on the road in tough environments. Heading into this matchup, the Trojans were 4-6 under Riley in Big Ten road play and 2-6 overall against ranked conference teams. But even though this is a Penn State team that is unranked and seemingly headed in the wrong direction, Riley put the victory on a pedestal for more than just the result.
"We didn't listen to all that you guys had to say on the outside. This crew doesn't really care," said Riley, who also coached at Oklahoma. "Like I've told you guys many times, I've only been a head coach at two schools. They've both been blue bloods. Blue bloods are unbelievable -- the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. But the disadvantages of the blue bloods are the outside noise is always going to be way over the top no matter what's happening ... I thought our team blocked out everything."
After failing to beat Oregon in Week 4 at home, the chatter surrounding Riley's future with the program picked up. He, and the whole program, had classified this year as one where they were ready to meet, even exceed, expectations. If his seat hadn't quite been hot before the season, after the loss to Oregon (Riley is now 0-3 against the Ducks while at USC), it appeared the temperature had begun to rise.
Still, Riley preached patience and potential. He said that he and his players knew the kind of talent they had behind closed doors and vowed to show it. On Saturday, the Trojans did not quite dominate the game but they sure controlled it.
Riley's offense outgained Penn State and moved the ball with ease. Gary Patterson's defense, which had allowed over 100 rushing yards in all but one game this season, held the Nittany Lions to a paltry 68 yards on the ground. Jayden Maiava completed 21 of 33 passes for 301 yards with three touchdowns and Trent Mosley, Tanook Hines and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt all caught touchdown passes in the win.
"This is tough place to play, a really hard place to win. You got to really outplay him here to beat him and we did that tonight and we did it on all three sides," Riley said.
At 6-1, USC will now head into a bye week that's much needed following seven straight weeks of play going back to Week 0. Once they return to the field, the home stretch does not get any easier with road trips to Wisconsin and Indiana, a tough matchup against Ohio State at home and finally a bout with 5-0 UCLA at the Rose Bowl.
Yet what Riley saw Saturday night at Penn State was enough to make him not just hopeful for what awaits them but confident too.
"This will be a big spark for us. This group is just scratching the surface," Riley said. "It was a little bit of firepower tonight, but there's way more left in this group. We're going to get better and better and we keep doing that and we're going to be pretty tough."