Ahh, it’s nice to be back. Another school year filled with new classes, sports teams back in action and many great editions of “The Great Debate,” of course. And with a new school year comes new hope for USC’s storied football program.
It’s a clean slate for Head Coach Lincoln Riley and the rest of the No. 23-ranked Trojans. This season, USC faithful will welcome a new defensive coordinator, a new signal caller and a new conference among other things. This year’s edition of Trojan football will undoubtedly be different from last year’s underperforming 8-5 squad.
Most years, it seems expectations are through the roof for USC, regardless of the situation at hand, only for fans to let themselves down when they fall short. Some experts had USC winning as many as 9 to 10 games in 2021, only for them to have a 4-8 record and end up firing then-Head Coach Clay Helton just two games into the season.
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That’s not to say there aren’t valid reasons for Trojan fans to be excited about this team. The Trojans have three main big flash factors that have fans excited: sophomore Zachariah Branch coming off a stellar true freshman campaign, redshirt junior quarterback Miller Moss poised to follow up his stellar Holiday Bowl performance and the team addressing its biggest flaw last year by bringing in stellar Defensive Coordinator D’Anton Lynn.
But how much better record-wise, if at all, will USC football be this season?
Frankly, not much. I urge USC fans to slow down and realize this team most likely won’t be competing for the College Football Playoff this season. It doesn’t seem there’s much room for the Trojans at the top of the new Big Ten conference between Ohio State and Oregon alone. But the product on the field — at the very least, on the defensive side of the ball — should be better.
Lynn is the real deal. He transformed UCLA’s defense in one season alone from one of the worst in the country to one of college football’s premier units. In 2022, UCLA was ranked 87th in the nation in yards allowed per game, and then Lynn took over and the Bruins allowed the 10th fewest. He cut their points allowed per game from 29 all the way down to 18.4.
The USC defense pretty much has only one way to go after last season, after allowing 34.38 points per game, but Lynn should take them into another stratosphere.
While the defense is much improved, the offense is still questionable, even if fans don’t want to admit it. Yes, Branch is a star in the making, and all signs point to him taking a big leap as the lead receiver. But besides him, the receiving core is shaky, to say the least.
It’s a largely unproven group with just two players listed on the current roster with more than 35 career catches. There is definitely some talent with sophomore wide receivers Duce Robinson, Ja’Kobi Lane and Makai Lemon, but they still have yet to prove themselves at the collegiate level.
There will be learning curves along the way for them, but for the time being, it’s not going to be easy for the similarly largely unproven Moss. And I know you might be thinking, “What’re you talking about? Moss proved he’s the future in the bowl game last year.” You’d be right on the fact that he did ball out, throwing the most-ever passing touchdowns by a USC quarterback in a bowl game with six.
But let’s pump the breaks a little bit. At the end of the day, it was a bowl game; you have to take it with a grain of salt. I’m not ready to crown Moss the savior and person who will lead USC to the promise land. I can also acknowledge it would be unfair of me to say he 100% isn’t that guy either.
We have overall limited reps of what this new offense will look like, and even less in that of a regular season game. Don’t be surprised if USC ends up with another 8-win season come December. It shouldn’t mean it’s a failure of a season for the Trojans, but this year just isn’t their year for postseason glory.
It’s unrealistic to think that this Trojan team is destined for the CFP based on one bowl game performance. Maybe next year will be the proper time for those shouts — especially with the hopeful improvement of the young receiver core and Moss’ experience as the main guy.
At the moment, however, prepare yourself for another letdown if you expect a championship or bust out of Trojan football.
Stefano Fendrich is a senior writing about his opinions on some of sport’s biggest debates in his column, “The Great Debate,” which runs every other Thursday. He is also the managing editor at the Daily Trojan.
