Bloggers and writers and podcasters can speculate about Penn State this week. Why not? We’re all thinking about that game. Coaches and players, however, have to have tunnel vision. They have to keep their eyes focused only on the game in front of them this week. It happens all the time in college football: A good team loses to an inferior team because it is looking ahead to the next game against the elite opponent. USC has to avoid that when it goes to Minnesota to play the Golden Gophers one week before the huge showdown versus Penn State.
If Lincoln Riley should tell his players anything before the game, it is that USC has not played a complete game against a good team yet this season. Utah State is not a particularly good team. USC can’t worry about Penn State if only because USC has to worry about itself. The Trojans aren’t yet good enough to look ahead to Penn State, even if they wanted to. That should be the message heading into Minneapolis on Saturday night.
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