No more excuses. No more “wait and see” situations. No more “we’ll get this fixed” declarations. No more talk about “this recent game was our wake-up call.”
Enough.
The Arizona State game was supposed to be a wake-up call for USC.
The second half of the Colorado game was supposed to be a wake-up call for USC.
The Arizona game was supposed to be a wake-up call for USC.
The Trojans were physically manhandled by Notre Dame.
They didn’t wake up.
When supposed “wake-up calls” do not in fact wake up a team, we are left to conclude that the team just isn’t as good as expected.
USC is an ordinary, average team right now. No one can reasonably dispute that claim. We can change our view and adjust our evaluation if the Trojans start to play like a good team against Utah, and then again versus Washington and Oregon.
They are still very much alive in the Pac-12 race. The problem is that Utah’s physicality might overwhelm the tissue-soft Trojans.
The problem is that Washington and Oregon appear to be a lot better than USC — not slightly, but dramatically.
The problem is that if USC doesn’t go 4-1 in its remaining five games, the Trojans will be in the Holiday or Alamo Bowl and will have completely failed this season. Anything short of 10-2 and a trip to the Pac-12 Championship Game is a total disaster for this team.
That kind of failure was never acceptable during the Clay Helton years. It shouldn’t be acceptable under Lincoln Riley.
There still aren’t signs of real accountability in the program. Something needs to be done.
Here’s our evaluation of the program and its coaching staff in particular: