COLUMN: Kessler missing last year’s confidence

Before the season started, I wrote a column about how Cody Kessler is the most underrated quarterback in college football. At the time, I was basing my opinion on Kessler’s performance last season when he completed 69.7 percent of his passes and had 39 touchdowns to just five interceptions.

Kessler likely flew under the radar last season because his team went 9-4, a record that most USC fans would consider disappointing. Kessler seemed to be another extraordinary USC talent on an average USC team.

Kessler has faced more adversity in three years than most players face in an entire career. He was recruited by Lane Kiffin and has seen three head coaches following Kiffin. Despite facing these coaching changes, Kessler managed to stay consistent under center and be a reliable presence on the field.

Perhaps it is the dramatic way in which Sarkisian was fired, or the fact that he was facing yet another coaching change during his senior season or maybe even the difficulty of USC’s schedule this season, but Kessler has gone from an underrated quarterback to an average quarterback.

The Trojans faced much higher expectation going into this season than last, so obviously Kessler was no longer flying under the radar. He and the Trojans went from being the underdogs with a first-year head coach to the preseason  No. 8 team.

After winning their first two games by scoring nearly 60 points, Kessler and the Trojans suffered a loss to unranked Stanford and unranked Washington. They lost again at Notre Dame, though that loss came from a top-ranked rivalry and is less concerning. After losing another head coach and falling to 3-3, the Trojans have finally started to look like the team we all thought they’d be at the beginning of the season.

The Trojans upset the former No. 3 team in the nation in Utah and then beat Jared Goff and the Golden Bears on the road and have put themselves back in the Pac-12 South race. The Trojans are 5-3 and will need to win out and need Utah to lose again to win the South, but they definitely have the talent to finish 10-3.

With the likes of Kessler, Adoree’ Jackson, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Su’a Cravens, the Trojans aren’t lacking talent, but rather consistent leadership. Interim head coach Clay Helton has done a fine job of giving the team something to play for in the wake of the Sarkisian fallout. But the team needs more than just a head coach; they need a quarterback they can be sure of.

We already know that Kessler is an elite college quarterback — he proved that last season. Kessler is struggling this season compared to his numbers last season. He has already thrown five interceptions so far this season, the same amount he threw all of last season. But I think what Kessler is struggling with most is his confidence.

He threw two interceptions against Washington and two against Notre Dame. He seems to get rattled under pressure and make bad decisions. The team has won two in a row now and have found a rhythm under Helton, so Kessler just needs to calm down and find the poise and consistency that made him so great last season.

The Trojans have four games remaining this season and can absolutely win them all. Their toughest test will likely be against true freshman quarterback Josh Rosen and UCLA in the final game of the season. If Kessler plays with the confidence of a redshirt senior, there is nothing keeping the Trojans from a Rose Bowl.

Regan Estes is a junior majoring in public relations and Spanish. She is also the sports editor of the Daily Trojan. Her column, “Wild Wild Westes,” runs Tuesdays.