Tag: USC Trojans Report Card

USC football report card for 66-14 win over Nevada

These grades for the Nevada game reflect the improvement the defense made, but they also account for the opponent.

The USC defense looked better against Nevada than it did against San Jose State. That’s the big story for the Trojans coming out of their September 2 game versus the Wolf Pack.

However, Nevada is a worse team than San Jose State. The Trojans figured to have an easier time against the Wolf Pack than they did versus the Spartans.

A very intriguing question after this game: Was the improvement from the first game to the second game more a product of guys settling into their roles, or of the caliber of opponent decreasing? It’s probably a little of both, but we do need to keep that in mind when evaluating this roster, and more specifically the defense.

The grades we gave out against San Jose State were not good. The grades we will give out here for the Nevada game are better … but let’s not assume USC has figured it out yet on defense. It’s too early in the season to say that.

Our grades will be better, but not fawning. Realism — honesty — is always the best approach.

Here is the report card:

USC report card: grading Trojans after 11th win of 2022 vs Notre Dame

Caleb Williams gets an A+ as a #Heisman QB, a punter, a defensive back (denying a Notre Dame INT), a leader — what can Caleb not do? #USC

Football games are fundamentally pass-fail tests, not term papers graded on an A-B-C-D-F scale. What matters most is that USC defeated Notre Dame, 38-27, to move to 11-1 on the season, one win away from a spot in the College Football Playoff.

The Trojans are not an airtight team, and they’re not an imposing, overwhelming two-way juggernaut on both offense and defense. However, their offense is definitely for real, and the simple fact that they have Caleb Williams and Lincoln Riley has been more than enough to lift them to 11 wins, the Pac-12 Championship Game, and a New Year’s Six bowl bid.

Let’s hand out the grades to the Trojans after another imperfect but winning effort, as this magnificent, overachieving season heads into December with big prizes on the table: