SOUTH BEND, Ind. — In the final minutes of USC’s humbling 48-20 loss to Notre Dame on Saturday night, this question came to mind: What, exactly, do the Trojans do well right now?
Nothing, really.
The offense has major issues — even the Heisman Trophy winner looked human on Saturday. The defense remains extremely vulnerable. The special teams have been average at best.
GO DEEPER
Caleb Williams, USC shellacked by Notre Dame
USC was supposed to be a Pac-12 title favorite and a College Football Playoff contender. Right now, however, it is a team without an identity, and that’s a major problem for coach Lincoln Riley.
Quarterback Caleb Williams has always been the bright spot. He forced some bad throws on Saturday and should shoulder some blame for those errant decisions.
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But those interceptions were a product of everything that surrounds him at the moment. Williams was forced into those bad decisions because USC’s offensive line simply couldn’t block Notre Dame.
The receivers struggled to get open last week against Arizona and had the same issues against a more talented Notre Dame defense.
Final. pic.twitter.com/sJRbt4NRWC
— USC Football ✌️ (@uscfb) October 15, 2023
The offensive line that couldn’t protect the quarterback, couldn’t open holes in the run game, either. So it’s not like the Trojans could lean on that to ease some of the pressure on Williams.
Nothing looks easy for USC’s offense. When it gets in trouble, there’s no foundation it can rely on to get back on track — unless you want to count Williams making something out of nothing as the foundation, and as Saturday showed, you can’t do that every game.
This is an offense that is supposed to go toe to toe with Washington and Oregon in the coming weeks. Unless things change, that seems unlikely. It’ll have a hard time holding up against stout defenses at Utah and UCLA, too.
The Trojans gave up 48 points on Saturday. It’s the third consecutive game they have given up 40-plus, so a lot of criticism will be pointed at much-maligned defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. But the offense and its four turnovers that led to 28 points played a significant role in the lopsided margin.
And this is a Notre Dame offense that hasn’t been good of late. Much more difficult challenges await. Even on a night when it wasn’t USC’s most pressing issue, the defense showed how susceptible it is to the big play — notably when Sam Hartman hit Chris Tyree for a 46-yard third-quarter touchdown.
That came after MarShawn Lloyd scored on a 36-yard TD run to cut the lead to 11. The ensuing touchdown pass came at the worst time, just as USC was trying to mount a rally.
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If Notre Dame can hit those types of plays, what will Michael Penix Jr. or Bo Nix do with actual good receivers?
Riley recently pointed to the sacks and pressure numbers that USC has recorded as a reason why this defense is better than last year’s unit. But against a Notre Dame offensive line that struggled against Louisville last week, the Trojans came up empty in the sack column.
There are other issues.
Last week, when USC had the chance to put Arizona away with a game-winning field goal in the final seconds, the special teams unit failed to cleanly execute the snap.
Throughout the first three quarters on Saturday, the Irish seemed so close to ripping off a big kickoff return. The Trojans weren’t covering well, and Notre Dame seemed destined to make them pay for it. Well, when USC tried to stage a late rally and made it 31-20 with 9:04 remaining, Notre Dame’s Jadarian Price returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown. And that erased any thought of a USC comeback. Another special teams letdown in the worst possible moment.
Riley described it as “the backbreaker” of the game. USC’s been having those far too often — think back to Mario Williams’ dropped kickoff return in the Cotton Bowl.
The Trojans aren’t playing well in any facet of the game right now. Just as troubling is the fact that there’s no great recruiting class on the way to build on. USC is ranked 18th nationally in the 247Sports Composite with an average player rating of 91.47. That’s good. It’s not elite — not enough for USC to take the next step as a program.
On Saturday afternoon, top-50 defensive lineman Aydin Breland announced his commitment to Oregon. Breland plays for Mater Dei in Santa Ana, which has long been a USC pipeline school. Mater Dei has five players ranked among the top 150 nationally in the 2024 cycle. Barring an unexpected flip, USC will miss out on all five.
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That’s not good, especially when some of those prospects play a position of need.
Later on Saturday, some 20-plus minutes after his team was undressed on national television, Riley was asked how USC could clean up the mistakes that have plagued it week after week.
“Work. There’s no magic pill for this. You go to work,” he said.
Then Riley mentioned some of his previous teams. The ones at Oklahoma that suffered midseason losses and still reached the Big 12 title game or even the College Football Playoff. And last year’s USC team that suffered a loss at Utah and still made the Pac-12 title game and was on the doorstep of the CFP.
“This group is more than capable,” Riley said. “Now we’ve got to go do it. We’ve got to go make the corrections. We’ve got to go fix the things that we’ve got to fix. We’ve got to go coach and play better. But is it in our power? Is it something we’re capable of? I believe it to my core, and we’re going to go fight our ass off to get it done.”
This was coming. Anyone who’s paid attention to USC the last few weeks knew this team was sticking its chin out and daring someone to knock it out. Notre Dame happily obliged.
Now the Trojans will have to rebound and prepare for the one team that’s consistently delivered the knockout blow: Utah, a program with an identity that’s been cemented for years.
As silly as it sounds, USC’s goals are still attainable. The Pac-12 title and a potential CFP bid are still possible even though they seem like distant dreams at this point. But if the Trojans are going to have any shot of reaching those goals, they have to find an identity or they’ll simply be remembered as a massive disappointment.
(Photo of Lincoln Riley: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)