Caleb Bullock, a junior, just earned placement on the Associated Press Midseason All-America Second Team. This season, the safety has recorded multiple interceptions and several pass break-ups. His pick-six against Utah was impressive. Yet, the full body of work just isn’t emerging for the defense as a whole.
Last season, Bullock started all 14 games at safety for USC, making 48 tackles in 2022. He also intercepted a team-high five passes, which included one returned for a touchdown. The Utah game gave him yet another score in his Trojan career.
Bullock has had two productive seasons with the Trojans, but he was unable to lead the defense to an impressive performance marked by real improvement and evolution against the Golden Bears.
With Jaydn Ott in the Golden Bear backfield, I expected Cal to run the ball with ease, and that’s definitely what happened. Cal was also able to throw the ball for third-down conversions on its final drive of the game. USC was fortunate to stop a 2-point play for the 50-49 win.
One good thing this defense did: The Trojans created turnovers to make sure the offense had plenty of oppurtinties to score with great field position. That mattered.
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Oklahoma fans were right about Lincoln Riley, at least for this specific season.
USC assistants need to be coaching for their jobs.
Lincoln Riley did not assemble an elite 2023 roster, which surprised us and a lot of other observers.
Is USC ready to win in 2024 with Miller Moss or Malachi Nelson at quarterback? Lincoln Riley has to be honest about how he answers that question.
Brent Venables is coaching Oklahoma far better this year than Lincoln Riley is coaching USC. It’s up to Riley to change that reality.