Lincoln Riley calls USC’s new football facility ‘a little bit of a dream’

As he entered a side door of the media room inside USC’s gleaming football facility, Lincoln Riley found himself waging a war of restraint.

With the Trojans set to unveil a new $200 million palace to reporters on Thursday, their coach didn’t want to spill too many details beforehand.

Then again, Riley was filled with euphoria about the place as he stepped in front of the media after his team completed its second practice of fall training camp.

Uh-oh.

Maybe a few details would be OK?

Riley couldn’t resist giving a bit of a primer.

“This building is magical — it really is,” the coach said Saturday of the three-story, 160,000-square-foot Bloom Football Performance Center. “I think the response of the players and the staff when they were able to first come in here was powerful. It’s a significant, significant step for our program.”

With his family away, Riley said he hadn’t left the luxurious compound in five days. He added he was having trouble getting players to go home given all the amenities at their disposal.

“I give the university credit,” Riley said. “You can say or promise that you’re gonna build a facility, and then you can halfway do it or you can do it right and just go over the top and just really not hold back in any way, and that’s what our university has done. I’m proud and thankful for the university for making this happen.

“These first few days in here have honestly been a little bit of a dream.”

The facility more than doubles the team’s previous space and, according to renderings, makes an immediate impression with a lobby showcasing USC’s 11 national championships, eight Heisman Trophy winners and 179 All-Americans.

The first floor contains a spacious locker room and player lounge in addition to cutting-edge sports medicine, nutrition, recovery and sports science facilities, not to mention a weight room providing direct access to the practice fields.

The second floor houses a state-of-the-art walk-through room, team and position rooms in addition to creative media and branding suites, an NFL alumni locker room, space for NFL scouts and a recruiting terrace overlooking the practice fields.

Reporters were granted access to that terrace Saturday to watch practice, though they were kindly asked not to report on what they observed as the Trojans continued preparations for their Aug. 29 season opener against San Jose State at the Coliseum.

After the practice concluded, Riley praised his players for staying in shape and said he was able to push them more than usual early in camp because of their conditioning and the fact that so much of the roster had participated in spring practice.

Riley said wide receiver Tanook Hines was “the most limited” because of an unspecified injury but was expected to be ready by the season opener. Fellow wide receiver Roderick Tezeno, who required surgery on a foot injury sustained in spring practice, is expected back early in the season.

Players working their way back from injuries will undoubtedly benefit from an enhanced recovery area inside the team’s new football facility.

“Honestly,” Riley said, “if you were to say maybe the biggest limitation before, the players’ recovery was probably it.”

The new building features different modes and modalities of recovery, Riley said, something that should help the Trojans as they try to avoid the sort of late-season injury issues that have doomed their attempts to make the College Football Playoff.

“From a recovery standpoint,” Riley said of the facility, “it not only gets us ahead of where we were at but it puts us ahead of just about any athletic facility that there is. We did our research and we tried to really be aggressive in that area, and I’m excited about how that came about.

“There’s a lot to this place, but again, out of respect for waiting for our event here in a couple of days and some of the people that obviously really contributed to make this happen, I want to respect that.”

Weighing whether to keep gushing about the place, Riley once again couldn’t resist.

“I promise you this: It will exceed your expectations,” Riley said. “Like, I promise you. Like, it doesn’t matter where you came from, it doesn’t matter what else you’ve seen — this place will exceed your expectations. It is phenomenal.”

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