Road clash with Washington State is nothing to ignore


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I feel like I’ve been writing the same column for the last five weeks. If anyone actually has a bead on this USC team, I’m all ears. It’s crazy: the fifth-ranked Trojans are undefeated through their first four games of the season, meaning their playoff aspirations remain very much alive — and they have beaten […]

Poe’s Perspective: Darnold’s sophomore slump can’t be ignored


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We’ve got to talk about Sam Darnold. I didn’t want to write this column. Heading into the season, I was basically the conductor of Darnold’s hype train heading on an express route to New York for the Heisman ceremony. I read all of the features from ESPN to Sports Illustrated, and although we’re supposed to […]

T-Time: Fans must hope latest scandal will pass


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On Tuesday morning, the college athletics world was rocked to its core with earth-shattering news. A long-running FBI investigation revealed widespread corruption in college basketball, resulting in the indictment of 10 men, including Adidas employees, sports agents and four assistant coaches: Arizona’s Emmanuel Richardson, Auburn’s Chuck Person, Oklahoma State’s Lamont Evans and, yes, USC’s very […]

Viscarra’s Vice: Close wins are not a concern for Trojans


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Anytime you can come by making a dollar bill, that’s a good thing. Regardless of the physical condition of the buck, you’re happy to put it in your wallet — even if it’s a bit crinkled or torn around the edges. A $100 bill fresh off the printing press is just as effective as one […]

Football is still shaky after three victories


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Will the real Trojans please stand up? We’re three weeks into the 2017 season, and we know more or less as much about this USC team as we did heading into opening day. The Trojans kicked off their campaign with an unconvincing win over Western Michigan, rebounded with a statement victory against Stanford but then […]

Football’s dangers too much to overlook


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My kids will never play football. This is a conversation that we have a lot around the sports office at the Daily Trojan. Whenever it comes up, the debate is short. Yes, football is a fun sport — if not the most fun sport — to watch. But it seems ridiculous, almost villainous, to allow our […]

Day’s Den: LA teams open NFL season on good note


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Two weeks into the NFL regular season, fans of the Los Angeles Chargers and Rams shouldn’t be extremely unhappy with the teams’ 0-2 and 1-1 records, respectively. On Sunday, the Bolts lost to the Miami Dolphins, 19-17, while the Washington Redskins edged the Rams, 27-20. The Redskins and Dolphins aren’t powerhouse teams, and the Chargers […]

Grinding Gears: Trojans’ rematch stands on its own


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All week long, we heard the narrative, the hype, the history — all about this vaunted “rematch” between No. 4 USC and Texas. Never mind that it had been more than a decade since that infamous Rose Bowl game. Never mind that most of the players in Saturday’s game weren’t yet teenagers when Vince Young […]

Rematch with Texas is worth all of the hype


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It’s been more than a decade in the making, and it’s finally here. For the first time since Vince Young broke Trojan hearts in 2006, USC will face Texas. All 93,607 seats in the Coliseum have been sold, and this weekend’s primetime game has even caught the attention of celebrities like Lance Armstrong. But instead […]

Poe’s Perspective: Mowins’ historic night is an inspiration


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For the first time in perhaps my entire life, I cried re-watching the highlights of this week’s season opening Monday Night Football game. I didn’t care about the score or the two teams playing, and I wasn’t watching the highlight reel for the game itself. Instead, I was crying listening to Beth Mowins commentate play-by-play […]