The USC Trojans are still a mystery as they enter their week off this Saturday, September 16. We already knew the offense would be great. Seeing that offense perform brilliantly is not a revelation. Zachariah Branch is a revelation, but the offense is not. That unit was always going to dominate.
Have we learned a lot about the USC defense? Not really. Not yet. The Trojans simply have to play a good offense in order to realize where their defense stands. We don’t know all that much about this team. When it gets tested and pushed, we will begin to learn a lot more.
Yet, for all the things we don’t know about the 2023 Trojans, they have done something which is extremely important through their first three games: They have rested their roster, particularly the starters.
Lincoln Riley and his staff have balanced the snap counts for everyone. They have not overextended the starters. A lot of players have gotten a lot of work. It’s exactly how the coaching staff needed to handle the team in these first three weeks. This is a fresh team entering the off week. USC has put itself in position to endure a 12-game season without running out of gas.
We talked more about this and many other USC topics at The Voice of College Football:
Check out our Pac-12 football predictions roundtable for the 2023 season.