Lincoln Riley

USC vs. Wisconsin: I’m not worried, just disappointed

Posted on by commbro

#13 USC vs. Wisconsin
September 28, 2024 at 12:40pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 74,118 (of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 27 minutes

Exploiting people’s innate desire to do the opposite of what they’re told

Another week comes and goes, and USC does well enough to keep their Big Ten title and playoff hopes alive. It was their second home game, the second team they played without a real QB, and another game where they rely on dominating in the second half to try to make up for the shaky first. You’d think after the loss last week, they would clean things up and come out more motivated. At no point was I worried that USC was going to lose, but definitely expected better.

Instead, they found themselves down double digits at the end of the first half yet again. While Wisconsin is not a cellar dweller, they’ve had their struggles on offense. Even after accumulating some more long plays this past game, they are #109 in passes of 10+ yards and #123 in overall plays of 10+ yards.

Granted, both last week and this week, they made significant efforts in the second half that brought them back into the game. Maybe we just have to come to accept that they are an after 2:00 PM team. (If that’s actually true, then they will have some struggles against #7 Penn State in two weeks with another 12:30pm kickoff). 

The highlight of the issues this week are special teams struggles. Letting a punt roll all the way to the 1 yard line (along with allowing that 74-yard punt also meant letting these fools catch up to our homie Czaplicki’s punt average) really hurt the offense. Longer drives give more opportunities for mistakes—like those of the turnover variety. It took 10 plays just to get to midfield and, sure enough, the drive ended in an interception. Then there was the muffed punt, which of course led directly to a turnover on the very next punt return play. Hard to get going when the special teams continually creates negatively impactful plays like that. Average start for drives was at 24.83 for USC while Wisconsin’s was 34.75…basically a free first down of difference per drive.

Maybe next year he can use the offseason to focus on improving the special teams like he did with the defense this past offseason. To be fair though, long snapper, Hank Pepper, capitalized off of Wisconsin’s own muffed punts by securing it. That beats out what most long snappers will do over an entire season.

Sorry, this is going to be a short and uncomprehensive post. It’s already Friday and I’m barely getting this out the door. At least I’m not to the point of feeding everything through Chat GPT yet.

Good/Badisms

Good: Stopping Wisconsin on 4th down on two separate occasions, especially during the third quarter on 4th-and-1 when Wisconsin still had the lead

Bad: Undisciplined play by the offensive line like the false start on 4th-and-1 that forced a field goal try instead of going for it.

Bad: The jump by the OL that didn’t end in a penalty or lost yardage, but still negated potential free play since the defense was offsides

Good: Ja’Kobi Lane and Duce Robinson making some contested receptions for touchdowns

Good: Holding Wisconsin to 0 points in the second half

Bad: Big Ten referees don’t seem to really call holding. Coming from the Pac-12, where every minor thing gets called, seems like USC is not adjusting well. Maybe the solution is for the coaches to tell them to hold until it’s called. Stop playing Pac-12 ball and start playing Big Ten ball

Good: Dominating in time of possession (40:07 to 19:53) after trailing in TOP in the first half. Nationally, USC is #16 in time of possession per game (32:40.50)

Good: Mason Cobb grabbing the interception off a double deflection and running it back for a touchdown despite having to dodge everyone for 55-yards coming from the middle of the field 

Good/Bad: Miller Moss’ runs, one for a first down and one for a touchdown. However, it was looking like he got a concussion on the touchdown run. That’s kind of the risk you run when you run your QB.

Bad: Turning over the ball three times is going to lose you the game against a tougher opponent.

Bad: Being reminded that this video exists:

If you understand this, it means you lived in a very specific time period

It’d take looking back through about 10 years of internet history to understand it…kind of like how you’d have to look back about 10 years since Wisconsin fielded good teams. 

CommBro Breaker

I went the whole post without talking about Alex Grinch and his appearance at the Coliseum and this is the extent of what I’ll say. Much like the Utah State game, maybe it was a chance for catharsis in an indirect way.

Uplifting Stat of the Week: USC is #11 nationally in opponent 3rd down conversion percentage (26.53%)

Depressing Stat of the Week: USC is perfectly balanced on turnovers, losing 6 and gaining 6. 

Corrected Stat of the Week: I had some readers correct me on my recordkeeping from the past week. They argued that Miller Moss has continued to complete passes to 10 different receivers in every game as a starter and that there is no correlation between his secret to victory. The tenth receiver in both cases are Michigan and Wisconsin defensive backs that intercepted Moss’ passes. The 5 game streak apparently continues like clockwork.

USC vs. Michigan: That’s Not Very Lincoln of You

Posted on by commbro

#18 Michigan vs. #11 USC
September 21, 2024 at 12:40pm
Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, MI: 110,702 (of 109,901)
Total Time: 3 hours 35 minutes

CommBro Breaker

The real CommBro Breaker of the week was that Miller Moss completed passes to only nine receivers this game. Apparently his power is only activated when that 10th receiver catches the ball. Not only have we figured out the exact reason USC lost, we have uncovered the mystery of the conspiracy. I can now safely end this post.

 

 

 

 

 

No, of course that wasn’t actually the end. No matter how much I wish I could end it that quickly with how little time I have, I could never do that. I’d rather not post anything at all (a habit I got too comfortable with the past five years) then make a joke of a post like that, but I digress…

USC took on its first conference game as a Big Ten member and it had to be on the road against the defending National Champs. It wasn’t any regular road game either, as the Big House boasts the largest official capacity in all of the United States—and their reported attendance numbers were even higher than that. Luckily, the Trojans an entire bye week to prepare for the game, but it really didn’t look like they took advantage of it.

The offense didn’t just come out looking flat, but the offensive line spent a good amount of time flat on the ground. So much so, they substituted players in the second half and proceeded to…spend slightly less time on the floor. Tack on the receivers dropping passes again, they had Miller Moss feeling more harassed than a sea turtle hatchling crossing the beach.

Miller Moss after every change of possession

Outside of three blown plays, the defense did decently (runs of 53 yards, 41 yards, 63 yards, which total to about half Michigan’s total yards). Two were due to poor positioning and one due to poor tackling. In the end, that’s pure copium though. Michigan scored as a result of those three plays and gave them enough to win the game. Besides, is it really a brag to allow a one-dimensional team run for 290 yards? Don’t get me wrong, being the first year of this defensive turnaround, the change is still impressive, but there are still things for them to work on.

Even the bright spots had some blemishes. Halfway through the third quarter, Michigan still had not managed to score (or really move the ball) that half, but Moss helped them along with an interception on the perimeter. The quick pick six to put the Wolverines up two scores again. Woody Marks decides to take the ball down to the 2-yard line with a 65-yard run, which the offensive line botched with a false start. Costly when the offense had to fight for every yard. The ensuing crucial 3rd down play resulted in a sack/fumble that was very nearly returned for a game-clinching touchdown. Woody Marks saved the day again with not only stopping the defensive lineman from scoring, but doing a clean strip and recovery that looked straight out of a video game. The double possession change even reset it to first down. It’s sad that’s what it took to finally score.

Then towards the end of the game, on the second to last USC drive, they picked the wrong time to dip back into all their problems: poor OL play leading to rushed (incomplete) passes, false starts, and, ultimately, a 3-and-out. The outcomes likely would’ve been better if they kneeled it three times. At least they would’ve burned more time and put more pressure on Michigan to throw with under 3 minutes to go.

The officiating was also subject to some criticism. There were definitely a few obvious missed facemask penalties, horse collar tackle, delay of game on 4th-and-1 that allowed a conversion, and some no-calls that might’ve even led to the injuries. They were egregious enough that the broadcast commentators made mention of several. In a game this close, every bit matters, and those very well could have been difference makers. You could argue they should have just played better and it wouldn’t have mattered. But of course we have to point it out.

Given the total penalty yardage for both sides in the game was 57 yards, the refs probably just let everything play out—Or we can claim our favorite thing here: CONSPIRACY. One of the refs, Chris Coyte, is actually a Pac-12 transplant. HMMM.

Good/Badisms

Good: Blocking the PAT after Moss’ pick six could have been huge, since a field goal at any point could have sent this game to overtime. It also provided a morale boost after a rough play

Bad: That being said, not being to drive down the field at the end to get into field goal range and taking a sack just outside of field goal range at the end of the first half could have gotten that aforementioned overtime.

Bad: Despite the blocked PAT, there were still some errors with special teams (too many people on the field, too few people, etc.)

Bad: Continued red zone scoring issues. USC currently sits at #77 (of 134) on red zone touchdown percentage

Good: Eric Gentry forcing and recovering the Donovan Edwards fumble that set up the go-ahead score. He also led the team in total tackles (12), tackles for a loss (3), and tied on sacks (1).

Bad: 8 tackles for a loss, 4 sacks, and a countless number of QB hits and pressures allowed by the offense.

Bad: Not being able to pick up a first down until the second quarter.

Push: Woody Marks got his second 100-yard rushing game in a row, and fourth of his career. More than half the yards came from that one run though.

Good: The USC defense impressively held Michigan to a 4th down from 1st and 6 at the goal line. If only they were able to finish that last play (or get the holding call, if you want to argue that).

Good: The #4s on both sides of the ball were extremely impactful. Woody Marks for the aforementioned reasons, and Easton Mascarenas-Arnold with some key tackles that weren’t flashy, but were crucial open field tackles that stopped first downs in the first half.

Really Bad: I didn’t proofread this time…like at all

Double CommBro Breaker

Somehow a Lincoln Riley team became a lower scoring, defensive team. While the whole team has things to improve on (including Riley’s own decision-making), a consistent offensive line would instantly make this a playoff team without any other changes.

Uplifting (?) Stat of the Week: Czaplicki has cemented his spot at #1 average yards per punt, more than an entire 2 yards per punt higher than the #2.

Uplifting Stat of the Week #2: While they allowed 3 big plays this game, the USC defense sits #13 nationally in allowing plays of 10+ yards

Semi-misleading Stat of the Week: The USC offense had an astounding 9 drives of four plays or less. Only semi-misleading because most of them were bad, but it’s inflated by two and three play touchdown drives.

Useless Stat of the Week: On that crazy fumble off of fumble drive, it went 6 plays for 66 yards. Are you superstitious?

USC vs. Utah State:

Posted on by commbro

#13 USC vs. Utah State (Home Opener)
September 7, 2024 at 8:10pm
Los Angeles, CA: 68,110 (of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 27 minutes

On a week where many top 25 teams either fell or struggled against far less talented competition, the Trojans didn’t fall victim to the classic “trap game” scenario—a G5 team on a short week, sandwiched between two ranked matchups. Instead, they shut out the first opponent since 2011’s famous 50-0 season closer against UCLA. It’s always a good feeling when your team is playing third-stringers in the second quarter, doing mass substitutions by the third quarter, and still managing to score over 40 points.

Yeah, sure, it’s “just” Utah State, but a shutout against anyone, especially in the current day college football should be cause for celebration. I’ll probably spend 90% of this post emphasizing that. There’s a reason it hasn’t happened in 13 years. This was actually the first time a Lincoln Riley coached team has shut out against FBS opponent (other non-FBS shutouts include FCS teams Missouri State in 2020, Western Carolina in 2021 when Riley was at Oklahoma). Just take a look at the last couple of similar tier games from Riley’s past two years at USC.

TeamPoints ScoredYear
Rice142022
Fresno State172022
San Jose State282023
Nevada142023

None of these teams scored less than two touchdowns. The hard part when you’re blowing apart another team that badly is that your backups need to come in and continue carrying the shutout. A simple field goal kick could end that, much like the 19-3 score USC ended with against Utah in 2013. Since we’re on the topic, let’s think about the kickers for a second.

If you ever thought that placekickers don’t really ever get to do much, know that Utah State kicker, Elliott Nimrod, had even less than what you’d expect. He almost had the minimum amount of kicking done in a legal game of football. After the opening kickoff, he disappeared for nearly 59 game minutes before they trotted him back out to attempt a 53-yard field goal. In real time, that’s probably like 3 hours and 20 minutes—enough time for him to run to the locker room, complete two full REM cycles or the entire theatrical release of The Return of the King and still have time to warm up before that final kick. That’s participation prize level of play. In comparison, the USC kicker, Michael Lantz, had to kick 17 times (9 kickoffs, 6 PATs, 2 field goals), which is more times than Woody Marks ran the ball and only 1 less than the number of passes completed by Aggie quarterback, Bryson Barnes. Maybe that name sounds familiar to you…

If it doesn’t, Bryson Barnes, is the name of the Utah backup quarterback that (in)famously came off the bench to beat USC in 2023. The big storyline was that he was a pig farmer prior to playing at Utah. He transferred to Utah State in the offseason and was probably hoping for a repeat experience. Instead, the only thing repeated is the familiarity of the dirt of being a pig farmer, as the USC defense picked up its first three sacks of the season. Now that Utah is no longer on the schedule, perhaps this will provide the team some measure of revenge (or if you want to approach in a healthier way: catharsis).

Good/Badisms

Good: Receivers blocking, tight ends blocking and….even the starting QB blocking. It helps spring bigger plays and shows the cohesiveness of the team culture

Good: Redshirt freshman tight end, Kade Eldridge, dragging a man across the first down line

Good: The defense holding Utah State to 101 yards in the first half and the subs holding them to even less in the second half (89 yards).

Good: In the waning moments of the second quarter, causing Utah State to burn 3 timeouts just to throw an interception

Bad: The heat, the lighting problems, and a sad reality that the torch was almost left unlit for the fourth quarter.

Good: Backup quarterback, Jayden Maiava, out there playing backyard football against the Aggies.

Bad: Injuries and poor OL depth, leading to playing a walk-on center

Good/Bad: Former QB Matt Barkley getting so hyped that he headbutted someone…that had a helmet on and started bleeding

Good: When the team is running so well, they put the third string running back in during the second quarter. At one point, both Quinten Joyner and Woody Marks averaged over 10 yards per carry.

Bad: Receivers dropping some easy passes that would have been touchdowns.

Bad: The fumble by Lake McRee…although it was a very good punch by the defender

Good: The USC defense only allowed 2 out of 11 third down conversions and 0 out of 2 fourth down conversions

Good/“Bad”: USC’s first and only punt wasn’t until the 4th quarter—which ruined Czaplicki’s average punt yardage since it was a short field. His previous 55.3 ypp, would have been good for #2 in the nation. After it dropped to 50.25 ypp, he now sits at 5th.

Good: Seeing eight banners for the retired numbers of Heisman trophy winners.

CommBro Breaker

In case you’re wondering whether the blank subtitle was a mistake, it isn’t. The blank space exists as a way to sandwich the post in a meta reference to shutouts (and find another way to sneak in a sandwich reference as a call back to all such references I snuck into my grad school speeches).

Conspiracy Watch Stat #3: For the third game in a row, Miller Moss has completed passes to 10 different receivers. What is he trying to tell us? Is #10 Kyron Hudson his favorite receiver? Is he going to win Heismans #9 and #10 for USC? TELL ME

Ridiculous Stat of the Week #1: USC has only had to punt an average of two times per game, which is tied for #9 in the nation.

Ridiculous Stat of the Week #2: For the second week in a row, the old Pac-12 teams only had one loss (11-1 last week, 10-1 this week).

Interesting Stat of the Week: USC is #14 in the nation in opponent penalty yards per game (81.5)

USC vs. LSU: Battle of LA Schools

Posted on by commbro

#13 Louisiana State University vs. #23 USC
September 1, 2024 at 4:44pm
Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, NV: 63,969 (of 65,000)
Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes

On a sweltering normal temperature day in Vegas, the marketing team for the Modelo Vegas Kickoff Classic would have you believe this was the beach vs. bayou showdown.

Instead, they had a really huge missed opportunity in not calling it LA vs LA. But for the fans, the true matchup was Miller vs. Modelo, as they stumbled drunk to and from the Strip. The game also boasted a record crowd, which, statistically, also probably means record number of drunks in attendance. However, I was unable to find evidence to support that claim. Apparently they don’t keep track of important stats like we do here at City of Angles. And there are none more important than the pettiness of proving people wrong.

Lincoln Riley had become the target for a lot of hate in recent years. Some of the common ones were some form of:

  • Left OU because he was scared of playing against SEC teams
  • Begged to back out of the LSU game
  • Can’t play defense
  • Needs transfer QBs that were developed by someone else

It really only took one game to shut all of those up. Maybe LSU collapses somewhere down the road or maybe they were pretenders all along, but you can’t honestly tell me that the defense of last year wouldn’t have let this LSU team score 40. The LSU offensive line returned four starters, with two that are projected to be top 10 draft picks. These were the same four that blocked for 2023 Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels. Regardless of how you cut it, this was a convincing victory against a tough SEC opponent that could’ve easily been lost by a mediocre team.

This B1G-SEC matchup proved that USC was always being held back by the Pac-12…even though there really hasn’t been time for the change in conference to make a material difference in the program. This is basically equivalent to Chuck E. Cheese going by Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings on food delivery apps. They had quality, but the brand had a poor image that they needed to get rid of. I just wish we didn’t have to get rid of all the traditions and good parts of the Pac in order to get rid of the (numerous) bad parts.

Speaking of bad parts, this game was not without them. The sketchiest part was when LSU scored their first touchdown of the second half to take the lead. This was followed by: a botched reverse that resulted in a fumble (luckily, an attentive offensive lineman was there to recover it again), a false start, which all ultimately led to a three-and-out. It seemed like the team was on the verge of an implosion. With the still lopsided time of possession, the defense had every excuse and reputation of collapsing. They held out not just once, but with a three-and-out of their own the second time. The offense not only squandered it the first opportunity, but managed to burn two timeouts in what we all knew would be a very close game. Being able to rely on the defense to only give up 3 points on those last three to four drives (does the final 4 second drive count?) was a huge difference maker.

Good/Badisms

  • GOOD: Punter, Eddie Czaplicki, averaging 55.3 yards per punt (#3 in the nation)
  • GOOD: The coverage team able to limit a punt return to 1 yard despite the 57 yard kick
  • GOOD: A very casual sub-two minute drive, capped off by the former SEC running back, Woody Marks, scoring the go-ahead touchdown
  • GOOD: H-backs showing springing big plays, like the aforementioned touchdown run. You all know how much a like fullback usage, but H-back is close enough
  • GOOD: Miller Moss in his two total starts, had to throw under duress into tight coverage against top 15 teams yet managed to throw 370 yards a game and only one total interception. His quick thinking and ability to release the ball quickly and accurately, earned him Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week.
  • GOOD: Defense able to make lots of open field tackles, limiting potentially large plays
  • BEST: Kyron Hudson’s amazing catch making the ESPN Sports Center Top 10…as the top play
  • BAD: Offense centering the ball for a short field goal try in the middle, which was missed. Could have been costly in such a close game
  • BAD: No offensive rhythm at the beginning, which made them grow dependent on explosive chunk plays to score
  • BAD: Offense wasn’t able to establish run game early on
  • “BAD”: Zachariah Branch getting tackled by the kicker on the big kickoff return. Remember when Baxter told Robert Woods “never let the kicker stop you“? Joking though, that was a great play.
  • GOOD/BAD: Bad is a player getting hit in the head. Good is Kyron hanging on to a 20-yard pass to get an additional 14 yards tacked on by penalty, a free time out, and ejection of their redshirt junior starting safety.
  • GOOD/BAD: Good is me making a post again after 2 years. Or maybe that’s bad LOL. Bad is I make absolutely no guarantees for consistency during this season. I will publish as my schedule allows. Or, again, maybe that’s good.

CommBro Breaker

“Here’s to the ones who dream
Foolish as they may seem”:
Notre Dame-Texas A&M
Georgia-Clemson
USC-LSU

Kudos to all these teams taking on tough matchups in their first game despite it being historically more beneficial to play a cupcake to bolster their playoff chances, especially in the expanded 12-team playoff format.

Misleading Stat of the Week #1: USC is undefeated against SEC teams in the ’20s (both the 1920s and 2020s combined!). They have literally only played LSU in those two decades.

Obscure Stat of the Week: In both starts. Miller Moss has completed passes to exactly 10 receivers, with none getting 100 or more yards. There must be some conspiracy theory we can contrive from this.

Misleading Stat of the Week #2: The defense has allowed 18 plays of 10+ yards, which is 114th in the nation. Luckily allowing some larger plays doesn’t necessarily equate to allowing points

USC 2021 Stats and Stuff

Posted on by commbro

Welcome back everyone. Yes, I disappeared for a long time due to the chaos in my life. It took a season of historically bad stats to bring me out of temporary retirement. I had intended to publish after the UCLA game, but got bogged down by some events leading up to the BYU game. Needless to say, it was an eventful week. Let’s just start it off.

After dropping to a 4-6 record and embarrassing defeat by crosstown rival, UCLA, I decided to examine just how bad the defense was. If you’ve been reading the blog closely, you know by now how few losing records USC has accumulated through the years. Below is a list of all 9 of them dating back to 1957. Why am I cherry picking such an odd year to stop at? 1957? There must be an agenda. Hello, you must be new here. City of Angles has an agenda guarantee or your money back. I’m not compensating you for your time—and neither is USC for all the time I wasted watching this dumpster fire.

YearRecordCoachTenure Details
20214-8 or 5-7Clay Helton/Interim Donte WilliamsYear 6 of 6
20185-7Clay HeltonYear 3 of 6
20005-7Paul HackettYear 3 of 3
19913-8Larry SmithYear 5 of 6
19834-6-1Ted TollnerYear 1 of 4
19614-5-1John McKayYear 2 of 16
19604-6John McKayYear 1 of 16
19584-5-1Don ClarkYear 2 of 3
19571-9Don ClarkYear 1 of 3

As a tangent, there are lots of interesting observations from this. In almost every case, a coach picks up a losing season at USC either within the first two or last two seasons. It seems like they usually build things up or get fired soon after. The only exception to this is Clay Helton…who managed to get one in year three of six and didn’t get fired until he was about to pick up another one in his final year. He is also one of three that is able to show up on the list twice. Legendary coach John McKay took two seasons to work his way up to the four national championships and 9 conference championships he would earn over the remaining 14 years. The other is Don Clark…that had a team that didn’t have scholarship players at certain positions due to severe restrictions on recruiting by the Pacific Coast Conference. That brings me back to the main agenda-pushing…


There was lots of chatter amongst USC circles about 2021 being the worst season since 1957. That’s definitely not true by record, since 1991 had a 3-8 season, but I’m sure it got overlooked. Basically no one on the current team was alive back then (except for Ben Griffiths, maybe a few months old at the time). Even interim coach Donte Williams was only around 9 years old back then. Maybe by some other metric, you could make this argument, but not by wins and losses. So could this season be the worst season since 1991—a 30-year low? Nay, I posit that this may be the worst season of ALL TIME.

It’s a bold statement, but here are my arguments:

USC lost 71% of home games this season (5 of 7), which is tied for second worst number of home losses as the 2000, 1991, and 1935 seasons. The worst was 1957 with 6 of 6 lost. That’s probably why there was a mass exodus at the beginning of almost every fourth quarter this season. Either that or they mistook the lighting of the torch as a fire and proceeded to evacuate to the nearest tunnel like that video keeps telling us to do.

This season had the first home loss to Oregon State since 1960. That’s a nasty 50-year streak that got broken…back before the first person went to space (1961).

It was also the first home loss to Utah in 1916…a whopping 105 years. The record has to say Los Angeles because the last time somebody saw Utah win against USC at home, the Coliseum did not exist yet. That’s because it was a built as a memorial to WWI veterans, which began in 1921 and was completed in 1923. WWI was still ongoing and the US had not even officially entered into the war until December of 1917. Look up significant things that happened in 1916, it’s pretty funny. The previous Utah win against USC at home is in league with “First successful blood transfusion,” “National Park Service created,” and “Rockefeller becomes world’s first billionaire.” I could sit here and make more comparisons to show how absurdly long of a time it has been, but I won’t. We have other stats to harp on.

That UCLA loss was also the most the Bruins have ever scored against USC. The previous high was 48 points in 1996, but it was also a double overtime game. The 62 points allowed ties for the highest points allowed by a USC defense in history (Oregon 2012, ASU 2013). Last, but not least (nothing to do with points is “the least” this season), the 29 point margin of loss is the largest since 1954 (0-34), when UCLA went undefeated and won their first and only national championship (that was split with Ohio State). It was also the season that the Bruins first debuted their powder blue uniforms (I hope you appreciated this tidbit because I had to log into ProQuest to fact check it).

After hammering home (like how just about every team hammered USC at home this season) just how long ago most of this stuff is, I saved one of the best stats for last. By points per game allowed, this is the WORST defense of ALL TIME. That’s all one hundred thirty-three years from 1888 to 2021. When I first crunched this stat out (about a week ago), USC was averaging 32.2 points per game allowed, and still had a chance to not have that dubious distinction.

Their only task would be to hold BYU and Cal to a combined 32 points. Seeing as how BYU already put up 35 points, it’s not only over, but will actually increase the average and pad the stats. Unless Cal somehow puts up at least negative four points, this stat will hold. During my delve into hundred plus years of history, I thought the 1901 season might come close to having a worse scoring defense. The two game schedule had one opponent scoring 45 points, but the average came out to 25.5. Unsurprisingly, the previous high was also Helton-involved at 29.4 ppg allowed back in 2019.

While most of these stats (other than scoring defense) aren’t the worst, they’re pretty damn bad. You could make arguments about the 1-9 1957 season or the 3-8 1991 season as being worse, but neither of them had all these things happen during the same season. As stated before, that 1-9 team also requires some huge asterisks due to the state of the roster. Coach Clark ended up achieving an 8-2 record two years after that 1-9 season before retiring and handing things off to John McKay, so it still seems better than the final season of one of the worst head coaches in USC history.

CommBro Breaker

USC did put up a good fight against 9-2, #13 BYU and was mere yards away from a victory, showing a bit of that “Fight On” attitude again. Perhaps someone whispered to them that LINCOLN FREAKING RILEY would be there soon.

While the season itself sucks, Mike Bohn and Brandon Sosna pulled off one of the greatest coaching search processes of all time. They brought in one of the best prospects that money can pay for right now and simultaneously managed to keep it quiet right up until the end. Who even knew he was a real option?

Personally, I didn’t even think it would be possible to poach a coach from a similar tier school/blue blood such as Oklahoma. While the guy’s resume is short (4 complete seasons), he has never finished outside of the top 10 and his team likely will do so again at the end of this season. He had playoff appearances in each of his first three seasons and four NY6 bowl appearances. There aren’t a whole lot of better active coaches in college football, or just active coaches in general. In the end, even if he isn’t able to win national championships at USC, he should at least move us squarely back into the right position. I can’t really think of any better options that are available. Riley’s offenses will be amazing to watch…the defensive coordinator he’s bringing is a little less exciting. The team will go as far as the defense lets it.

FYI, if you have a moment, you should check out the post-press conference interview with Sosna. He exudes well thought out philosophies, is well-spoken, and provides interesting background to the process. USC better do what they can to keep him for as long as they can.

Anyway, welcome back to all the readers. It wasn’t my best content, but I’ll get back to my old ways as USC now will. Thanks for showing up after the excessively long hiatus. See you all again soon (hopefully).