USC good but not great in opener

It was the longest day in Trojan history. An 8 p.m. start time left plenty of time, almost too much, for tailgating. My roommates and I started at 9 a.m., and it wasn’t until about 11:30 p.m. that I left the Coliseum with the band’s celebratory rendition of “Tusk” echoing behind me. There weren’t too many left in the stands at that point, but there wasn’t much of Arkansas State left either after the Trojans’ 55-6 dismantling.

It was reminiscent of last year’s 52-13 win over Fresno State to start the season. I think the 50-point mark is a good barometer for whether or not things clicked as well as they should have. It’s hard to believe that two years ago, this same program lost 10-7 in its home opener to Washington State.

Predicting anything about a team after only one week is crazy. That’d be like deciding what fraternity to join after rushing it for only one week. But our Trojans did everything to validate their No. 8 ranking in the AP Poll, so here’s a list of eight takeaways from the limited sample size. Four are positive, and four are uncertainties that need to be addressed if the Trojans want to jump four spots in the national polls and into the College Football Playoff.

1. The offseason talk is officially off. Like last year, the Trojans showed no signs of distraction from the off-field drama that us sportswriters talked about so much while there weren’t any games to cover — I’m so happy football’s back. Those issues won’t come up again until after the season. Unless things start going wrong …

2. Cupcakes are healthy. I didn’t know Arkansas State’s conference until googling it just now — Sun Belt. It wasn’t until probably the second SoCal Spell-Out that I figured out what its mascot was—“Is it ‘Beat the Rebels’? Oh OK, ‘Red Wolves.’” Of course, it wasn’t as exciting as the 2016 season opener against Alabama will be. But USC already has a wicked tough schedule, so I think a pair of softies to start it off is definitely a good thing.  Idaho is also from the Sun Belt, and its mascot is the Vandal, by the way.

3. Ronald Jones II and Tre Madden. The former is worthy of being ranked by ESPN as the No. 1 running back recruit in the 2015 signing class. The latter is healthy, and dangerous. Technically these are two takeaways, but they belong together. Expect to hear the term “Thunder and Lightning” in some upcoming columns.

4. Clay Helton is — still —a competent playcaller. We already knew this from the times he retook the reins of the offense from a former coordinator turned head coach by the name of Lane Kiffin. You don’t need a degree from Marshall to understand that delegation is a pretty basic and logical executive management strategy. But seven different players with offensive touchdowns was a nice touch in case anyone wasn’t sold.

5. Cody Kessler is a long way from the Heisman. In fact, he might not be the best quarterback in the Pac-12 South, let alone the country, given Josh “Chosen” Rosen’s breakout performance in UCLA’s 34-16 win over Virginia. And that’s OK. He doesn’t need to be the best in the country for USC to seriously look like the best team in the country. He does need to connect on more of his deep balls, though. And he can’t get sacked five times a game. Again, sample size. But my goodness, we better be able to keep up with UCLA …

6.  Bending but not breaking. The Trojans gave up over 400 yards, which isn’t great. But six points allowed is great, as are four recorded turnovers. Arkansas State did spend about an extra 10 minutes of the game in possession, partly because of how quickly USC scored, and the Red Wolves were only marginally more efficient on third downs — 6-19 instead of 3-10. This is neither really here nor there. But here’s to hoping the defense can look even more dominant against better offenses.

7. Adoree’ Jackson needs to be healthy. I almost hope he doesn’t play against Idaho so that nothing else bad happens.

8. The Pac-12 looks bad. Arizona State and Stanford’s upset losses to the SEC’s Texas A&M and the Big Ten’s Northwestern, respectively,  will not help USC’s case for a top four spot at the end of the season. Neither will Washington’s loss to Boise State. Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  If none of them pose a threat in USC’s first three conference games and the Trojans head into South Bend undefeated on Week six, the Trojans will be in prime position to win the conference. But that could also mean a two-loss, conference-winning Trojan team could be legitimately left out of the CFP.

In conclusion, like I did last year, I’ll reference Lou Holtz’s theory that assessing a team after one game is like predicting the occupation of an infant. Watch Kessler win the Heisman, Helton get demoted and Justin Davis emerge as the dominant back just because I jinxed it.

I’ll again reiterate how happy I am that football is back. We can spend 14 consecutive hours completely consumed in anticipation and viewing of a sports event; it truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Except next week’s game starts at 5 p.m., and I hope none of my roommates are already up by 6 a.m.