Lincoln Riley isn’t backing down from his belief that the fake punt ploy USC pulled last Friday in its win over Northwestern was perfectly within NCAA rules.
“The fake punt was entirely legal,” Riley said on Tuesday. “Our guys did a fantastic job of executing it. And there’s not really a whole lot else to say.”
The play in question from Friday’s game appeared to be a normal fake punt, with USC and Northwestern locked at 7 apiece, early in the second quarter. But unbeknownst to Northwestern, USC third-string quarterback Sam Huard lined up as the punter, wearing the same uniform number as Sam Johnson, the Trojans’ usual starting punter.