We just don’t know all that much about the 2023 USC Trojans. Is their defense better than last year’s? Yes … but is it better enough? Is it good enough to really matter versus quality offenses? We don’t know that. It might be, but Nevada and Stanford did not test this defense at a high level.
Let’s wait for the Colorado game. That will give us a much truer indication of where this defense really is.
We know that the offense is great, but we knew that going into the season. The important preseason questions haven’t been answered at a deeper level … and that’s fine. That’s not a criticism. It’s merely a reflection of the soft schedule the Trojans have played.
We talked to Fighting Irish Wire about this, noting that Nevada lost to Idaho last week, 33-6, in Reno:
“Hawaii struggled with Albany this past weekend, which certainly casts Stanford (also a future Notre Dame opponent) in a different light. That Hawaii-Albany game magnified how little value one can assign to Stanford’s win over Hawaii. I thought Hawaii, by playing Vanderbilt on fairly even terms (if you look at total yards and other stats, that game was not lopsided), might have been a semi-decent team. Obviously, I was wrong … and that flowed into my appraisal of Stanford heading into the USC game. Stanford looked atrocious. Woof. USC might have looked great, but the caliber of opponent makes it hard to truly assess where USC stands.”
Catch all of Ducks Wire’s Pac-12 team previews for the 2023 season:
Arizona — Arizona State — California — Colorado — Oregon State — Stanford — UCLA — USC — Utah — Washington — Washington State