Tag: USC LSU

USC receives abundant national publicity … for great reasons

USC had a lot of eyeballs watching the Trojans in Week 1. That wouldn’t have mattered if the Men of Troy lost. Since they won, it’s a huge bonanza.

Having the Sunday evening slot all to itself was the perfect stage for USC versus LSU, the highly anticipated game with a lot of storylines behind it. USC versus LSU pulled in the biggest television ratings of any Week 1 college football game. USC recruits were watching, but so were a lot of uncommitted recruits across the country. They got to see that USC takes defense seriously now, can play physically now, and can develop players at an NFL level on both sides of the ball, not just one.

It was a long offseason for both the USC and LSU programs in anticipation of how their defenses would look on the field against a quality offense.  That offseason was definitely longer for the Trojans after their 2023 season went off the rails in the loss to Notre Dame in Game 7. While most of the players on both rosters weren’t even born 21 years ago, and nobody on the USC coaching staff or in its administration are still with the program now, this game mattered to those who watched both teams share the 2003 national championship.

The fact that USC was highly-watched in Week 1, and was then able to deliver a huge win, gives the Trojans a windfall of positive media attention. The offseason national chatter was mostly negative. This is how USC can change the national narrative and make significant forward strides in recruiting and the transfer portal in the coming cycles, which is all part of building back to a national championship standard.

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Jennifer Cohen deserves a lot of credit for USC’s win over LSU

USC’s NIL struggles dominated offseason headlines, but Jen Cohen did pay big money to hire the defensive coaches who beat LSU. Give her props for that.

We all know that the NIL conversation at USC has been a very difficult and contentious one, leading into Sunday’s LSU season opener. It dominated the spring and summer, usually for the wrong reasons. Seeing Isaiah Gibson and Justus Terry decommit and go to Georgia was a double gut punch for the Trojans. Eric Henderson had appeared to have brought two elite defensive players into the program, exactly the kind of thing which would take USC and its defense to the next level and build the program’s reputation to a point where Pete Carroll-level talent would once again exist on a Trojan defensive unit. Jennifer Cohen, as the athletic director at USC, naturally came under fire for the NIL struggles. To be honest, NIL does need to take some forward steps at USC, at least if the Trojans are going to eventually catch Dan Lanning and Oregon in the recruiting rankings. No one would say the NIL program is exactly where it should be. It’s a work in progress.

However, while NIL is its own separate conversation, no one can question Jennifer Cohen’s effectiveness on two other fronts which show how skilled she is as an athletic director: One, she has raised funds for the new football facilities being built and established. That’s huge, and she deserves credit for that. Second, and more specifically connected to the LSU win, Cohen forked up the dollars to hire the new defensive coaches who have given Lincoln Riley and the program a lot of bang for the buck in the early part of the season. USC’s win over LSU doesn’t happen without Jennifer Cohen spending money in the right areas. That’s part of why Cohen — in a picture I took of her on Sunday — was smiling with happiness and, one can imagine, quite a lot of relief.

Catch some of the other photos I took of USC players and coaches during the win over LSU in Las Vegas:

USC recruits, fans, and players all enjoyed Las Vegas against LSU

Trojans Wire’s Tim Prangley was on site in Las Vegas. He took a lot of photos which showed how much fun USC had on Sunday against LSU.

One of the especially great aspects of USC’s win over LSU: Big-time recruits were watching. We noted this earlier in the week:

Remember this one simple point about USC’s win over LSU on Sunday: It was the only game in town. It was the only game on television. It was the only game, period. There were no other games played Sunday night. There were no other college football games played on Sunday. This was a solo stage. USC and LSU had this 3.5-hour game window all to themselves. You better believe top college football recruits were watching. They wanted to see if USC was for real. They wanted to see if USC really was a changed football program. They really wanted to find out if the talk from the coaches and the salesmanship had real substance behind it.

The answer was very clear. USC delivered.

The Trojans had a lot to prove going into this game.

If you thought recruits enjoyed the game — which they did, given how they reacted to USC’s victory — I certainly was able to see up close how much the 2024 USC players relished the occasion against LSU. Enjoy these photos I took of the game. USC football is back … and the fun of Sunday night in Las Vegas was a feeling we hope to feel many more times in 2024 and beyond:

Miller Moss needs USC teammates to help him vs LSU

Miller Moss needs his offensive line to step up versus LSU.

USC Trojans quarterback Miller Moss joined Big Ten Netwotk’s Adam Breneman to discuss taking over the starting quarterback role after the departure of 2024 No.1 overall pick Caleb Williams. Moss will take center stage for the Trojans against LSU, but everyone — Moss included — knows his USC teammates need to do their jobs in order for the USC offense to function at a high level and create a successful season for the Men of Troy.

The USC offensive line likely holds the key to the whole USC season. If the offensive line does its job, Moss should have enough time to survey the field, make the right reads, and get the ball to USC receivers who have high-end talent and should be able to get open versus the LSU secondary, which was awful in 2023.

Moss also discusses how his head coach, Lincoln Riley, prepares the offense to succeed and how the Trojans are feeling heading into the 2024 season, which begins with this LSU showdown.

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