USC Trojans Coach Lincoln Riley, Quarterback Jayden Maiava, and Defensive Tackle Devan Thompkins discusses the secondary's depth with the injuries on the team

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00:00I know there are injuries, but how do you fix the pass defense?

00:02Yeah, it's got to get better.

00:03It just wasn't good enough, I mean, obviously.

00:05I mean, and that's at all levels.

00:07I mean, you've got to affect the quarterback.

00:09You've got to be sound at coverage.

00:11You've got to eliminate the run game.

00:12I mean, it's still team defense at the end of the day.

00:15So, look, we're playing, you know,

00:17obviously we're playing pretty shorthanded in the secondary,

00:19but, you know, nobody cares, right?

00:21There's no excuses.

00:22Like, that's college football.

00:23We've got to have other guys step up.

00:26You know, we've got to play better and coach better there.

00:27So, Jacoby Lane got involved late, but, of course,

00:30had a smaller role at the beginning of the game.

00:31What did you see out of him, especially since he was questionable?

00:34Yeah, I mean, you know, he really wasn't supposed to, you know,

00:36really play at all, but, you know, kid's a warrior.

00:38He just, you know, he just went and, you know,

00:42wasn't going to be able to play much at all

00:44and then just, you know, felt a little bit better than we anticipated

00:47because he ain't taking a rep in practice in two weeks.

00:50And so he's just a warrior, man.

00:52I mean, a guy willing to lay it on the line for the whole team

00:55and the program.

00:56We appreciate guys like that.

00:57You talked this week about the schedule challenges.

01:00Did you feel like that played a role at all?

01:01No, I didn't.

01:02I mean, I thought we handled it well.

01:03I give credit to our administration for letting us do

01:05what we felt like we needed to do.

01:06And I thought we were fresh and ready to go.

01:09And, I mean, it has its challenges.

01:11Like, it's going to be a challenge no matter how good you do the schedule,

01:15right?

01:15Like, the challenge is there.

01:17It's just how can you minimize it as much.

01:18And I think we minimized it as much as we possibly can.

01:21I mean, this is winning on the road stuff, as we saw last night,

01:24as we see every week of every year of college football,

01:27especially against good teams.

01:28So we gave, you know, here we are, you know,

01:30up a point with, you know, whatever minute and some change left.

01:33I mean, we gave ourselves a great chance to win it.

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