Every now and then, anyone who covers sports for a living will be blown away by a specific fact. Doing research for a game or evaluating a team will eventually lead a writer or commentator to find a statistic or comparison which reveals a shocking disparity. Want to get a shocking fact which underscores the problems USC football is going through right now, with Penn State coming to the Los Angeles Coliseum on Saturday? Here you go, via Matt Hayes of USA TODAY Sports.
Hayes noted a simple but profound difference between USC and Iowa in their games versus Minnesota this season:
This was Row The Boat with players USC wouldn’t think twice about recruiting.
But there was Riley’s offense, the foundation of his coaching resume, managing all of 17 points against a Gophers defense that gave up 31 points to offensively-challenged Iowa on the same field two weeks earlier.
If your offense is trailing Iowa – the team that last year punted for more yards than it gained – there’s clearly a disconnect somewhere.
That one simple comparison tells the story, does it not? USC scored 17 against Minnesota, and Iowa scored 31. No explanation needed.
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