Rod Dedeaux set a national championship standard USC wants to regain

Here’s a reminder of where USC wants to eventually return one day.

The USC Trojans had a bad opening weekend for their 2024 college baseball season. The Trojans were unable to win a game at the three-game Desert Invitational. USC lost to BYU, Grand Canyon, and Ohio State in three individual contests. It was not the start the Trojans wanted. Yet, it’s only one weekend. One would think this team will eventually find a rhythm at the plate. The bats will get hot and the pitching will be there to enable the offensive production to stand up. USC wants to reach a top standard, a benchmark for success established by iconic USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux.

When you think about national championships at USC, you think about John McKay and Pete Carroll in football, and you think about Rod Dedeaux in baseball.

The facts are simple, yet so powerful in that simplicity. Dedeaux won 11 national championships at USC, and he won five consecutive crowns from 1970 through 1974. Just for perspective, the second most successful college baseball program of all time, LSU, has seven national titles. USC and Dedeaux won five titles in a five-year span. That’s insane.

USC matched LSU’s seven national titles in an 11-year span from 1968 through 1978. USC’s baseball dynasty was every bit as overwhelming as UCLA’s basketball dynasty under John Wooden in the same time period (the early 1960s through the late 1970s).

This is the standard USC aspires to. Today’s Trojans have a lot of work to do.

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