The reality of Major League Baseball is different from the reality of college football in many obvious ways. The biggest difference is that baseball involves the marathon regular season, with 162 games. The Los Angeles Dodgers just won their first “full season” World Series title since 1988. Football, in contrast to baseball, has the sprint with 12 games plus the playoff. A baseball team can struggle or lack necessary pieces (or both) for 95 games but then pull the trigger on a deadline deal in late July and turn things around. College football teams can’t make a “trade deadline” deal in mid-October and save a season. For USC football, that option wasn’t available anyway (even if it existed), because the season was already dead in mid-October.
We readily acknowledge that MLB competition and college football are wildly different. However, any champion in pretty much any sport can teach a lesson or two about how to build — and become — a winner. What can USC football learn from the world champion Dodgers?
We’re not going to make this complicated.
The Dodgers invest in excellence everywhere. They don’t pinch pennies. USC has made investments in facilities and paying a defensive coaching staff. That’s important and should be acknowledged. Jennifer Cohen has done significant and valuable things to help USC be competitive.
However, USC doesn’t have an airtight operation. Many in the college football industry think the Trojans aren’t maxing out in a few key ways:
- General manager
- Offensive line coach (Josh Henson)
- NIL
- transfer portal acquisitions
- recruiting in the state of California, particularly Mater Dei
That’s five key areas where USC is unquestionably not doing the best it can.
Again, we have acknowledged that college football doesn’t have an equivalent of the MLB trade deadline midway through the season. The Dodgers were able to make big pickups at the deadline. USC can’t make midseason acquisitions, but it didn’t do nearly as well in the portal as it could have or should have, and that’s a clear point of differentiation between the Trojans and Dodgers.
Oregon and its NIL operation set a Dodger-level standard. USC gets outgunned by the Ducks in the portal, much as the Dodgers outgunned the competition (the Blue Jays) for Shohei Ohtani and (Mets, Yankees) Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Dodgers beat out other teams for Tommy Edman, Jack Flaherty, and Michael Kopech. All three of those guys were instrumental in delivering a title to the Dodgers.
USC has to re-evaluate its program and make sure it is doing the absolute best it can in every facet of operations. Clearly the Trojans are falling short in a few crucial ways. Upgrade those weaknesses in the offseason, and let’s see where the chips fall in 2025.
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