My Two Cents on USC football…

[PlainsUte]

Since the link posted recently, and likely others coming soon to the interwebs near you will have USC as the favorite due to the arrival of Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams, I’ll point out a few things, though I realize I’m preaching to the choir…

1) Of course football is much more complex than say, NBA Basketball, where you can bring in one star guy like Lebron and win a championship.  Even there the Lakers did it once and since then?  USC has always had star recruits, nothing new there.

2) USC’s offense generally has not been their problem.   They were ranked #23 in 2021 FBS offense (yards/game); while Oklahoma was slightly better than that (#18) and had much better yards/play, USC didn’t bring in OU’s offensive line, tight ends, wide receivers.  USC’s defense was ranked #89 in 2021 FBS defense (yards/game).   Hmmm.

3) I’ve heard somewhere “defense wins championships”.  Aside from the aforementioned NBA, that is still true.  Utah had and still has the best defense in the Pac-12.

[ProudUte]

IMO, USC has the players and coach to be a very good offense.  However, I suspect that their defense will struggle.  I think there will be a lot of 48-42 type scores.  I think Utah will also have a very good offense and I suspect that our defense will be solid.  Overall – advantage Utah IMO.

 

[D T]

USC’s issues were in the trenches last year & LR isn’t bringing in a bunch of linemen.

IMO, that glaring deficiency doesn’t get rectified in Year 1.

[SkinyUte]

Also worth noting that USC had no mental toughness at all and were generally soft as marshmallows.

Some of that is cultural that can shift with a new coach, but I don’t think it’s a switch you simply flip overnight.

[PlainsUte]

Yes, granted a new coach can change attitudes.  Oddly, OU was chided for having lax attitude on defense last year, particularly when Tulane lit them up for 35 pts and Kansas held a lead on them going into the 4th Q.  Not sure that’s on Lincoln or the D-Coordinator.

[D T]

LR’s building a new culture for the first time ever…..He was handed over a machine in Norman…..It’ll absolutely take more than 1 year to get it established, maybe as long as 1.5-2 years.

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