Tag: usc trojans football

Notable USC quotes from Week 5 victory over Arizona State

Another week, another win. See what #USC players and coaches said in reaction to their win over Arizona State.

The USC Trojans handled the Arizona State Sun Devils on Saturday night. It wasn’t pretty in terms of a complete game. The Trojans showed several weaknesses, as one might readily expect after a draining, taxing game against Oregon State the week before.

The unquestionably good news is that Caleb Williams got back in the saddle and dazzled with his improvisational playmaking skills. USC was able to throw the ball for first downs, big plays, and another 40-plus-point performance. That’s how it should be.

The bad news was that the defense’s containment and its ability to set the edge were not up to par, certainly not in the first half. Arizona State entered the second half trailing by only four points. At least the Trojans responded well in the second half and put the game to bed midway through the fourth quarter.

Here’s what USC coaches and players had to say about the win, which moves the Trojans to 5-0 in 2022:

It’s time for everyone at USC to raise their game — this includes the fan base

This is not a criticism of USC fans. Arizona State late at night is not a sexy game. However: A capacity crowd is in order for Washington State. 77,000 should be expected.

Much as USC fans themselves should not be too concerned about the Trojans after their uneven performance in a win over Arizona State, no observer of USC football should be worried about the Trojan fan base after Saturday night’s game against the Sun Devils.

Let’s be realistic about all of this: Would you upend your Saturday night to see a bad Arizona State team in a late-night game in the Los Angeles Coliseum? Probably not. The Sun Devils are not an opponent for which a hard-earned roll of 20s should flow out of your hands. We get it. It makes sense.

Much as the Trojans didn’t have to be at their very best to handle Arizona State and move forward with their season, the fan base didn’t have to show up in force to help the team win against a mediocre-to-below-average opponent.

Now, however, that changes as we move into Week 6. Let’s be clear about this:

The biggest problem with USC football has nothing to do with the Trojans themselves

#USC is taking care of business, but if anyone thinks the Trojans are overrated through five games, there’s an obvious point to make. The coaches need to emphasize it, too.

Does the 2022 USC football team have flaws? Of course it does. We can see that the rush defense still isn’t where it needs to be. We can see that when an opponent — even one as mediocre as Arizona State — doesn’t throw four interceptions and is able to protect the ball reasonably well, USC will give up more points and will struggle to firmly put a team away as soon as possible. ASU was still in the game when the fourth quarter began, though USC did have a two-score lead instead of the uneasy four-point edge it had at halftime.

There are some problems with USC through five games, but the biggest problem is not with the Trojans themselves. If we’re going to sit here and identify this team’s biggest overall concern, it is something the Trojans can’t control … but it has to be said, so that the players in particular are aware of reality:

USC wasn’t spectacular in win vs Arizona State … and it didn’t have to be

USC does have reason to be concerned, but it’s not what you might think. There were also some significant positives to take away from this game. We’ll discuss them here.

The immediate debate after USC’s moderately comfortable win over Arizona State — it wasn’t a blowout, but it also wasn’t a nail-biter — is if the Trojans should be concerned about their status and their overall level of quality.

The answer might be a cop-out: yes and no.

There are certainly reasons to be concerned about the Trojans after this uneven performance, but the reasons might not be what you immediately expect. It’s a more complicated picture than it might seem on the surface. There is plenty to discuss after this game, and to be sure, you’ll want to read our report card feature on this game to get a fuller evaluation of the Trojans. What is important to absorb at a time like this is that circumstances shape evaluations. The larger context of a situation affects the grades we give to players, coaches, and position units. Here are the main points to ponder after the Trojans moved to 5-0 this season:

Social media reaction to USC’s 42-25 win over Arizona State

USC struggled in the first half and excelled in the second. See how #USCTwitter reacted to the evening as it evolved.

The USC Trojans won a very draining game against Oregon State in Week 4. They are battling injuries on their offensive line. They have big games against Washington State and Utah coming up. This Saturday’s game against Arizona State was a sandwich game. It was a trap game. It was a hangover game. It was an attritional game.

Over the course of a long season, teams won’t be able to play at the same energy level or with the same degree of enthusiasm and clarity every Saturday. This is partly because we’re dealing with 19- and 20-year-old athletes, but it’s mostly because any sport at any level is a grind. Most games might be the same (for better or worse), but some will be different. In football, injury situations and the significance of games change from week to week. One week’s big moment is the next week’s slog. Games acquire a different feel, and that’s part of the challenge of greatness.

USC did what it had to do against Arizona State, winning 42-25. We’ll certainly discuss over the next few days how significant this game’s finer details were. For now, enjoy the various Twitter reactions and comments during the Trojans’ victory:

How the dynamics of this USC football season have already changed

More changes will greet #USC in the weeks ahead, but the Trojans have already changed the nature of their 2022 journey. We talked to @MarkRogersTV about this.

We looked at a lot of pundit predictions and a lot of publications’ prognostications about USC football for 2022. Websites, podcasters, columnists, reporters, polls — we looked at a large number of predictions about the Trojans in the first year of the Lincoln Riley era.

The most common prediction for USC — in a 12-game schedule — was that the Trojans would go 9-3. Some experts said 10-2, but most went with 9-3, believing that the new and reconstituted nature of the Trojans’ roster would need a lot of time to come together.

“You can’t completely remake a 4-8 team in one year,” a lot of people said in more words or less. “There are too many new faces on the roster,” analysts said about Lincoln Riley’s reliance on the transfer portal. “They will all need to learn how to play as a cohesive group.”

This is why most predictions stopped short of saying USC would win 10 games this year.

After the month of September, those skeptical views are unlikely to hold up.

It’s not impossible, but it’s a lot less likely.

We explained to Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football that if the consensus on USC’s preseason over-under win total was 9.5, the new consensus is now 10.5. USC’s floor might have been eight or nine wins heading into this season. Now the floor is probably 10 wins. We’ll see if USC can win 11.

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Taking stock of USC football at the start of October

One obvious question: How will this #USC team evolve in October after the forward strides it made in September?

One month down, two months to go. USC made its way through September without a loss. It will be a lot more challenging to go through October without a loss. In truth, though, a 3-1 month of October would not be a bad result for USC. Maybe the Trojans can solve Utah on Oct. 15, but even if they don’t, a 3-1 month means they would handle Washington State and Arizona.

Remember this about USC’s schedule: The Trojans do not leave Los Angeles at any point in the month of November. They play three home games and have the “road” game at UCLA, in which they will have fans in half of the Rose Bowl. A 3-1 October puts USC in position to defend Los Angeles in November, with a chance to go 11-1. USC plays Cal and Colorado to start November. If the Trojans leave October at 7-1, they will almost surely be 9-1 heading into their rivalry games against UCLA and Notre Dame.

Most USC fans would take that scenario right now.

We talked to Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football about the state of USC after its September games:

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Korey Foreman needs to get on track this season for USC defense

Alex Grinch pulled no punches, speaking very directly about the reason for Korey Foreman’s DNP against Oregon State.

Korey Foreman was a top tier-prospect for the USC football program and the former No. 2 recruit in the country for the 2021 class.

He had only 11 tackles last season (3.5 for loss) and just 2.5 sacks, and he played only eight games last season,

The start of the 2022 season hasn’t gone much better with injuries limiting his availability in offseason practice. He is clearly still behind the curve and not getting the amount of reps needed to sharpen his skills and raise his developmental ceiling. There is a lot of work to do for the Corona, Calif., native, who could provide Alex Grinch’s defense with a needed depth piece as we move toward the midpoint of the season.

USC’s defense clearly made the grade against Oregon State, but with rush end Romello Height already out for the season with a shoulder injury, the Trojans need Foreman to play a lot and play well, to eat up snaps and reduce the strain on the other members of this defensive unit.

Grinch, however, isn’t going to play Foreman unless or until he sees a level of improvement which warrants that level of confidence and trust:

Korey Foreman received zero snaps against the Beavers last Saturday, and with Height going down for the season, you would expect the talented Foreman to get more playing time … but it was quite the opposite.

Foreman is only 19 years old and has time to grow into the first round talent we know he could be. But with only five tackles and zero sacks so far, we’d like to see “Agent 0” get his head in the game and produce. Maybe this game versus Arizona State will be the one which resets his season.

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Lincoln Riley’s challenge against Arizona State: winning the season, not just a game

It won’t be hard for USC to beat Arizona State. It will be hard for Lincoln Riley to balance and juggle several priorities as offensive play-caller.

The USC Trojans are huge favorites over Arizona State, and they should be. Arizona State lost at home to Eastern Michigan and then lost by 21 at home to Utah. The Sun Devils are a mess of a team under an interim head coach with a depleted roster. They lost multiple star players in the transfer portal, one of them being Eric Gentry, who has become USC’s defensive MVP through one month of the season. Their offensive and defensive lines are the weaker parts of their roster, which makes them a team which is unlikely to hurt USC.

The Trojans should not sweat this game. This contest is very unlikely to be close in the fourth quarter. Winning this game should not be a huge challenge, or any sort of challenge, for USC.

This game does, however, present a challenge to Lincoln Riley: Can he coach this game as part of a longer season and not as a one-game moment following a subpar performance from him and his offense?

After a bad game, any competitor naturally wants to fix everything.

USC couldn’t throw well against Oregon State, so it’s a natural instinct to want to fix the passing game. USC didn’t score a lot against Oregon State, so it’s human nature to want to see the Trojans score 40 or 50 points. USC didn’t hit deep downfield passes against Oregon State, so it’s normal to want to hit 60-yard passes against Arizona State and feel powerful on offense again.

Yet, Lincoln Riley can’t coach that way.

Washington State comes after the ASU game on Oct. 8. Then comes Utah on Oct. 15. Those are important and challenging games.

Arizona State, coming right after the draining Oregon State game, is a time for USC to not chase style points or big numbers. That shouldn’t be necessary.

This is not an idle week for USC, but playing ASU is close to an idle week. It’s an easy opponent which shouldn’t require too much stress or game pressure.

This is a time for Riley to focus less on fixing the passing game, and more on getting players healthy for Washington State and Utah. He needs to worry less about scoring tons of points and recapturing the beautiful offense we saw earlier in the season. We all want to see that every week, but against Arizona State, the much bigger priority is to manage his roster, make the game minimally taxing, and reduce the odds that key offensive players will be hurt.

Riley generally wants to lengthen a game, give his offense more possessions, and be aggressive with his offense. This is a time to shorten the game, reduce possessions, and shepherd a banged-up offensive line through 60 minutes with minimal strain. This means fewer passes — not as a tactic to beat Arizona State, but as a way of reducing the burden on his O-line heading into the Washington State-Utah double-stack of games which will be extremely important (and a lot more difficult than Arizona State).

If USC scores just 30 points and cruises to an unimpressive 30-13 win, it will be easy for fans to think the team and the offense are not in a good place. The truth of the matter is that after the draining Oregon State game, playing ASU gives USC a chance to downshift and not go full throttle.

The team needs that. It doesn’t need to chase the style points this week.

Get everyone healthy. Do just enough to win without too much drama or difficulty. Then prepare for Washington State with a full playbook and a much healthier offensive line.

Get a 17-point lead. Then put in Mason Murphy in place of Bobby Haskins at left tackle and spend the second half handing the ball off.

It’s not Lincoln Riley’s job to entertain fans every week. It’s his job to win Pac-12 championships. The big goal is the season, not one game against a really bad opponent.

Riley has to resist the temptation to look good each week, and focus on the goal of managing this roster for a 12-game grind.

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2022 USC Trojans Football Schedule: Downloadable Wallpaper

Never miss a game this season with our downloadable 2022 USC Trojans football schedule for your smartphone.

Never miss a game this season with our College Wire downloadable 2022 USC Trojans football schedule. Use as wallpaper for your lock screen on your smartphone.

Also, please share it with friends so they have the schedule with them at all times too!

You can buy tickets to every USC Trojans game at TicketSmarter.

Download the 2022 Trojans football schedule here

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