Tag: Oregon Athletics

Oregon Big Ten title should make USC fans angry

Dan Lanning and Oregon are actually doing the things Lincoln Riley was hired to do at USC. It’s the harsh but obvious truth.

It has now been more than 16 months since it was announced that USC and Oregon would be joining the Big Ten Conference together in 2024. At the time of the announcement, USC football and Oregon football appeared to be in similar places. Both were coming off of double-digit win seasons under first-year head coaches, were recruiting well, and appeared poised for long-term success.

Since then, however, the Trojans and Ducks have gone in completely different directions.

Since the start of the 2023 season, Oregon is 25-2. On Saturday evening, the Ducks defeated Penn State to win the Big Ten championship in their first season in the league and lock up the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.

USC, meanwhile, is just 14-11 the past two years. At 6-6 this year, the Trojans barely even made a bowl game, and were nowhere near the playoff.

The unfortunate truth for USC fans is that Dan Lanning is doing at Oregon exactly what Lincoln Riley was hired to do at USC.

The Ducks have recruited elite talent. They consistently have high-level quarterback play. They are extremely physical along the lines of scrimmage. They have a culture of toughness and discipline.

The Trojans? Not so much. USC had a great season with Caleb Williams in 2022, but the Trojans have yet to prove that they can field an elite team in the trenches. USC has been dominated along the lines of scrimmage on numerous occasions under Riley, and there have not been enough recruiting wins to suggest that is going to change in the imminent future.

For decades, USC has been the premier football program on the West Coast. Right now, Dan Lanning and the Ducks are stuffing the Trojans into a locker. Given how much Riley is getting paid, USC fans have every right to be furious with the results.

Eric Musselman offers blunt assessment of USC’s season outlook

Eric Musselman knows he does not have a full plate of options at USC in his first season. The Trojans are fighting an uphill battle all the way.

It has not been the best start to the season for Eric Musselman and the USC men’s basketball team.

On Wednesday night, the Trojans fell 68-60 at home to Oregon in the first Big Ten game for both programs. With the loss, USC fell to 5-4 on the season. With only three more nonconference buy games left before conference play gets into full swing, things are not looking great for the Trojans in Year 1 under Musselman.

Following the loss, Musselman was asked by Luca Evans of the Orange County Register about his outlook for this year’s team, and he gave an extremely honest assessment.

“I don’t know how many Big Ten games we’re gonna win,” Musselman said. “What I do know is, if you put forth that effort—from a culture standpoint, you know—I don’t think any, you walk out of the building, you think the team played hard, you think the team played hard, you think the team gave great effort, and you think the team didn’t close the game. Which we didn’t.

“We were right there. And like I said, if you lead for 30 minutes, it’s the last 10 minutes of play that we’re not used to winning as a unit.

“There’s probably going to be other nights that we play really well, and whether we can walk away with the win or not, I don’t know in year one. But the effort was there, other than defensively, down the stretch.”

Given Musselman’s prior success at Arkansas and Nevada, the Trojans’ program should be in good hands long term. But if early results are any indication, USC fans might need to wait a year or two before the victories start to come in.