Purely in terms of games played, USC has completed slightly more than half of its games in 2023: 7 of 12. In terms of the Pac-12 Conference race, USC is nowhere close to being finished. The Trojans are 4-0 in the league and, with a win over Utah next week, are likely to enter November 6-0 in the conference with a definite chance to make the Pac-12 Championship Game.
The season isn’t over. A Pac-12 title would mean something. More chapters are left to be written. These remaining games definitely matter, and we’re not going to suggest or imply they don’t.
However, it is more likely than not — after seeing what happened against Notre Dame — that USC won’t win the Pac-12 title this year. Washington looks like a better team. Oregon does, too. If USC doesn’t win the Pac-12, the season is a failure, period.
USC is not certain to fail, but it is likely to. That’s a painful sentence to write, but it reflects the reality on the ground.
Lincoln Riley just hasn’t done a good job with this team in 2023. Maybe he will fix some things in the next month and a half, but he won’t fix everything. The bigger fixes will come in the offseason, and after a sobering beatdown at the hands of a less-than-great Notre Dame team, it’s not too early to talk about them.
Let’s pull up a chair and explore where Lincoln Riley truly fell short with this 2023 USC team: