USC was adrift in the years preceding 2022, which offers a parallel with 2002

20 years before Clay Helton, there was Paul Hackett. #USC found the right replacement for Hackett, much as it found the right guy to replace Helton.

USC was a wayward and aimless college football program the past several years under Clay Helton. Lincoln Riley stepped into this mess and immediately cleaned things up, showing that one year was sufficient for a transformation and renewal project. He didn’t need three or four years to get everything in order.

While the transfer portal did not exist 20 years ago, making it harder to instantly revive a program, it is true that USC needed a reset and found just the right coach to execute the plan. The Trojans’ struggles under Clay Helton, followed by a Riley renewal, offer strong parallels with 2002 and the Paul Hackett years which preceded that special USC season.

College football historian Chris Kreager looks back at the 2002 USC team and the years which immediately preceded that important season in Trojan history, now 20 years old:

(h/t Matt Zemek of Trojans Wire)