We talked about this throughout the offseason, and we followed the preseason polls and the analyses of various college football pundits and publications: Could USC be good again?
Lots of people felt USC was going to be 8-4 in 2022, maybe 9-3 at best. Plenty of analysts and experts voiced open skepticism that USC could compete for the Pac-12 championship (if “compete for a Pac-12 championship” was defined as making the Pac-12 Championship Game) and immediately lift itself to a noticeably higher level.
An 8-4 season would not have answered the question about whether USC can be good again, because 8-4 is not good for USC. An 8-4 record is rarely if ever acceptable at USC. An 8-4 record would have been a clear failure for Lincoln Riley, his staff, and his players.
If we are to explore why this season was so positive, the seven-win turnaround from four wins to 11 speaks for itself. Yet, there’s a specific point to make about the positive impact of this 2022 campaign: It immediately ended any questions about whether USC can compete for championships and return to the top tier of the sport. After 2022, the only question which matters is whether USC can ascend within the top tier. It’s already in the upper reaches of the sport once again. Now it’s about measuring itself against the top programs, and no one else. So many questions which applied heading into 2022 can now be brushed aside. We don’t have to deal with them anymore. Now it’s all about attaining true elite status. No one will pick USC to go 8-4 for a very, very long time.
We had more to say to Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football:
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