Over the past few days, there has been plenty of talk about the attendance at USC’s season opener against San Jose State. Due to extremely hot temperatures, an early kickoff, and not exactly a marquee opponent, the Trojans drew their smallest home crowd in nearly eight years.
Following Tuesday’s practice, head coach Lincoln Riley addressed the matter.
“This is USC, right?” Riley said. “People are gonna pay attention. People are gonna have an opinion. It’s part of being a blue blood school.
“I don’t buy into the false narrative. I think that comes from a lot of people who don’t follow our program. Most of them have never stepped foot into The Coliseum. Reality is that during my years here, attendance has gone up every year.”
The good news is that the factors that played into Saturday’s low attendance should not be a problem the rest of the season. The bad news, however, is that the Trojans play a Friday game this week against Fresno State, which also typically tend to draw smaller crowds.
At the end of the day, though, what happens on the field matters far more than what happens in the crowd. As long as the Trojans continue to win football games, fan attendance will be nothing but a footnote.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Lincoln Riley addresses attendance at USC-San Jose State game
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