When USC lost to Utah the first time back on October 15, the Trojans played well enough to win but were brutally unlucky and were the recipients of the very best game Cam Rising and Dalton Kincaid could possibly play. Not getting a fair shake on two separate huge roughing-the-passer calls made that game feel like a contest which was taken away or, at the very least, altered by forces USC couldn’t entirely control.
This game on Friday night in Las Vegas was different.
Utah smoked USC. The Utes were better. They were tougher. They were deeper. They were stronger. They exposed the Trojans at their weakest points and elicited the conversations we expected to have about this flawed USC team in 2022. It came at the worst possible time, but it happened.
Our grades for the Trojans will reflect that, and they will lead into some necessary — and inconvenient — conversations about this program heading into 2023: