LOS ANGELES – Might be kind of a personal question, but can I ask: How are you feeling about USC football?
Has this season’s team captured your heart yet at 4-0? Do you believe in these Trojans, in what they’re telling you with wins like Saturday’s eventual 45-31 dismantling of Michigan State in USC’s Big Ten matchup at the Coliseum?
Or are you perhaps finding all the flags to be red flags? Do you need more time? Still feeling some kind of way after being burned by the past couple disappointing seasons?
Personally, I think you should give these Trojans a chance.
Because if you stayed up for Big Ten After Dark – tame by the Pac-12’s dramatic old standards and offensively late by the Central Time Zone’s – you saw all of their most distinguished qualities.
You witnessed more of the new and improved Jayden Maiava, confident and prone, now, to avoid mistakes. USC’s junior quarterback is still without an interception this season.
And you were reminded – as you watched Maiava throw for three touchdowns, run for another two and occasionally disappear from would-be tacklers’ grasp like Harry Houdini or, well, like Caleb Williams – how effective Lincoln Riley’s offenses can be with a mobile, dual-threat QB who understands the assignment?
You saw Riley keep giving his running game sufficient run. Waymond Jordan took off for 157 yards on 18 carries and Eli Sanders flew for 84 in 13 carries, both electrifying players making life much easier for Maiava.
You watched the Trojans defenders trip up the Spartans (3-1), defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn getting aggressive with his play calls and Eric Gentry doing Eric Gentry things (six solo tackles, including two for loss) while Jahkeem Stewart continued to introduce himself confidently as an high-impact player, diving through the line of scrimmage to end plays in the backfield before they could even begin.
You surely made note of all the ways Makai Lemon can put the squeeze on an opponent, his eight catches for 127 yards including a 40-yard touchdown haul. His door-slamming 4-yard touchdown run made it 38-24 with 8:20 to play.
So you can admit it, put that all together and this seems like a USC team you could see yourself believing in.
But also one that you fear could break your heart too.
Because you also flinched as you watched the Trojans – 4-0 with a 11 a.m. (9 a.m. West Coast) breakfast date next Saturday at Illinois – play with their food.
You watched the Trojans take their eyes off the ball – that was set up on a tee. You grew frustrated watching them fumble their focus. Again. And again.
The third quarter was especially off-putting. There was the penalty called on Ta’Mere Robinson for running into the punter as Michigan State served effectively as a turnover. The Spartans got the ball back and after three more Trojans penalties to help them make their way down the field, scored a touchdown that made it 31-17.
And when USC’s next offensive play from scrimmage resulted in a DJ Jordan fumble, Michigan State made the Trojans pay for that mistake by marching down for another (penalty-assisted) touchdown that made it 31-24.
The Spartans – short-handed and shaken by seeing their teammate, Wayne Matthews, scarily injured – were allowed to wrestle momentum away from the home team that should have been dominating if not for its overcommitment to the bit about shooting itself in the foot.
In the end, USC locked back in and made away with the win despite nine penalties for 67 yards – a trend for the Trojans, who have gotten away with 31 penalties through four games for an average of 80 yards per game given back.
Do those sorts of habits give you pause? Stir some deep-seated doubt?
I’d understand, if so. But here’s why I think you can get behind them.
Because of Riley’s response to the miscues.
He didn’t spin, he didn’t point fingers, he didn’t reach for excuses. He shrugged. Like: Yeah, so?
Sure, he said, the Trojans have to clean it up a little bit. But what they’re not going to do is worry about playing perfectly. They’re not going to be precious about it.
“We had a couple substitution errors tonight, which are inexplicable. Those can’t happen. That’s coaching. We’ve got to get a lot better at that,” Riley admitted.
But, he added, “we’ve had some aggressive ones, and I’ve told people for years, most of the time if you go to the end of the season and go look up the least penalized teams in the country, typically it’s a bunch of teams with (expletive) records.”
What I heard Riley saying is that the Trojans are good enough to fly close to the sun, that they’re good enough to account for the right kind of errors.
I heard him say that he believes USC is good enough that it won’t be finishing the season with an (expletive) record.
