USC’s Lincoln Riley and Nebraska’s Dana Holgorsen meet again with some surprises – Daily News

LOS ANGELES — They are not strangers, growing together first from the late Mike Leach’s vast Texas Tech tree, its roots splintering in wobbly directions only to come together again.

In 2015, eight years after he first left Texas Tech, Dana Holgorsen confronted his former student, Lincoln Riley; Holgorsen’s West Virginia Mountaineers defeated Oklahoma 44-24 in Riley’s first year in Norman. They clashed in annual skirmishes for years, with Holgorsen never scoring more than Riley’s mumbled “Sooner” offenses. Even when Holgorsen left for Houston in 2019, Riley beat him again, 49-31, in the season opener at Oklahoma; This was the last encounter between the two Air Raid technicians to date.

So far.

They are not foreigners, yes. But they had never met like this. Holgorsen had been away from college football for the better part of a year after being fired to Houston in 2023, but Nebraska’s Matt Rhule called him up amid the Cornhuskers’ offensive struggles and put him on a flight to Lincoln for a stint. consult.

A few days later, Rhule announced that Holgorsen would take over as Nebraska’s starting quarterback midseason, and Riley suddenly had an old friend to plot against him.

“I was surprised, to be honest,” Riley grinned, reflecting on his reaction to Holgorsen’s hiring on Tuesday. “I heard it was going there, but I had no idea if it was going to happen.”

“So, obviously Coach Rhule has a lot of confidence in him, and I understand why,” Riley continued after a few words. “If you’re going to do this, you should do it with someone who has the experience and level of success that Dana has.”

Suddenly, USC and Nebraska’s matchup on Saturday became a nice mystery; The two programs are bringing in help from the wings to float offenses that have been treading water for weeks. Holgorsen, Nebraska’s offensive coordinator, comes in as an orchestrator of consistently strong offenses at West Virginia. Replacing Miller Moss for USC is quarterback Jayden Maiava; Riley turns to the redshirt sophomore UNLV transfer after reviewing film of a 21-point effort against Washington in which Moss once again made a backbreaking pick in the second half.

Fascinating question: Amid the sudden change, how much will Riley and Holgorsen’s plans, which are similarly built around a spread-out passing attack and using the running game as a counter, change in a few weeks?

“I mean, your first thought is obviously I don’t think it’s going to be a completely new system,” Riley said Tuesday. “I’m sure things will be different, or why change anything to begin with?”

Created over a few late nights last week for USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, the program was suddenly tasked with reviewing film of Holgorsen’s offensive tackles in Houston and evaluating the key elements he could bring to Nebraska’s offense. Holgorsen’s offenses in Houston ranked in the top 20 in the country in both 2021 and 2022, and were noted for then-Cougars quarterback Clayton Tune’s heavy use of pepper spray.

And the Cornhuskers certainly need a spark, with freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola unable to generate much traction during a three-game losing streak. Nebraska, in particular, has struggled mightily in finishing drives this season, ranking near the bottom of the nation in red zone efficiency.

“Is there anything different that he or she is doing that we think they can implement in two weeks?” Lynn said Wednesday when asked about Holgorsen. “You can’t change much, but you can definitely change some things with a goodbye.”

Equally intriguing, meanwhile, is how Riley will restructure USC’s offense behind Maiava, a 6-foot-10 dual-threat athlete whom sophomore Duce Robinson praised as “naturally talented.” For two weeks, USC’s head coach has largely resisted the idea that Maiava could help unlock a deep offense, but the lanky sophomore is a more natural than Moss at making off-play run-pass option looks in his 2024 snaps He showed talent.

“We’re able to see him with a lot of reps now, and I think we have a pretty good idea of ​​where his confidence is in some of the things we’re doing,” Riley said Tuesday, when asked how cooperative he was with him. Maiava talks about USC’s offensive game plan “and the things he really feels like he can go out there and execute at a high level.”