The college football season in 2023 will be fun to watch. As far as the USC Trojans are concerned, the second year with Lincoln Riley will come with a ton of expectations once again.
Here’s what Jon Wilner of The Mercury News wrote about the Trojans for this season:
“For all of the talent coach Lincoln Riley has amassed, there is some risk to the Trojans even reaching the championship game, much less winning it. They generated an otherworldly turnover margin of plus-1.5 per game last year, the highest by a Power Five team in a full season (i.e., excluding 2020) since Oregon in 2014. The following season, the Ducks reverted to the mean in that crucial metric, and we expect USC to do the same. That could more than offset any offseason personnel upgrades.”
Getting takeaways was the one thing USC’s defense did really well in 2022. This upcoming season, the Trojans will need to get more three-and-outs and non-turnover defensive stops. If Alex Grinch is to deliver a satisfactory result — one which will ensure USC wins games in which it scores 42 or more points — the defense can’t be as turnover-reliant as it was last year.
Bear Alexander and other incoming transfers have upgraded the talent level to the extent that Grinch has no excuses left. He has to make the USC defense moderately better than last year, enough to make a real difference for this program.
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