The USC football program hopes to compete for national championships. This is the standard here and no one claims otherwise. Pete Carroll reminded us of this pattern. However, context is important and sometimes processes cannot occur instantly, all at once. Sometimes building a championship-standard program requires two or even three years. That’s life at USC now.
USC went 8-5 last season. The Trojans were a mess. They didn’t have a good defense. They didn’t have good defensive coaches. They haven’t played in a high-level bowl game. They regressed from the 2022 season. They failed. They suffered a disaster. The idea that USC is ready to compete for a national championship in 2024 is simply not reasonable. Does anyone think USC has a remotely good chance of going 12-1 in its first Big Ten season against the schedule it has? In the Pete Carroll era, USC players and fans knew going into the season that they were “national championship” good. That is not the case now. We want to compete for the national title, but we are not prepared. So if USC makes the College Football Playoff in 2024 but loses by 30 in the first round, that will be progress. This is great progress. It might not seem like USC would lose by 30 in the first round, but when the Trojans lost five games last season and were shut out by Alex Grinch, simply making the playoffs this year would be extraordinary. Neither good nor great; extraordinary. If losing by 30 in the playoffs is part of the deal, so be it. USC would be relevant once again. Recruitment would improve. The USC restoration project would advance several notches. If a sudden loss is part of the playoff picture this year, every USC fan should accept it, no questions asked.
Here’s our Friday show on The Voice of College Football, where we spent a lot of time discussing this exact point:
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