The USC Trojans might be the hardest team in America to pin down heading into the 2025 season.<\/p>\n
On a recent episode of Josh Pate\u2019s College Football Show, college football analyst Josh Pate listed USC among his four most unpredictable teams this fall, pointing to the razor-thin gap between a breakthrough year and another disappointment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sep 28, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley reacts after a game against the Wisconsin Badgers at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images \/ Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The respect gap is glaring. The AP Poll dropped USC all the way to No. 30 in its preseason rankings\u2014a steep fall from grace for a program that had Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams and College Football Playoff aspirations a few seasons ago. But Pate\u2019s own JP Poll paints a different picture, slotting the Trojans at No. 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not given up on USC. We have not given up on Lincoln Riley,\u201d Pate insisted. <\/p>\n
Still, he acknowledged the reasons behind national skepticism. USC dropped far too many games in 2024, including narrow defeats that exposed lingering flaws.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nov 30, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans quarterback Jayden Maiava (14) scores a touchdown against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish during the second half at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images \/ Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
A second-half collapse to Notre Dame where they allowed 35 points in the second half highlighted their defensive inconsistency, while a complete meltdown against UCLA where they surrendered 62 points to the Bruins underscored concerns about toughness at the line of scrimmage. <\/p>\n
Add in an upset loss to an unranked Big Ten opponent in Minnesota, and suddenly the Trojans went from playoff hopeful to cautionary tale. <\/p>\n
The question now is whether those breakdowns carry over\u2014or spark the kind of course correction that carry over\u2014or start the kind of course correction that could redefine Riley\u2019s tenure in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nov 30, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley reacts against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the second half at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images \/ Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why USC\u2019s range of outcomes is so wide. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf they\u2019ve Big Ten-proofed their lines of scrimmage and they\u2019re bigger and more physical and able to withstand a pounding\u2026 they could be 11\u20131,\u201d Pate said. \u201cThey could also be six and six. You could be looking for a new head coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
The schedule underscores that unpredictability. USC faces Illinois, Notre Dame, Nebraska, and Oregon all on the road\u2014matchups that test not only talent but also the discipline and toughness Riley\u2019s teams have often lacked. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t have good decision-making at the quarterback position, if you don\u2019t have the ability to be consistent offensively, if you can\u2019t control the line of scrimmage, you\u2019re just going to disappoint again,\u201d Pate warned.<\/p>\n
MORE: Updated Recruiting Rankings: Georgia Bulldogs, USC Trojans’s Exciting 5-Star Commits <\/a>MORE: USC Trojans 5-Star Recruits Turning Heads With Prestigious Preseason Honor<\/a>MORE: NFL Insider’s Urgent Message About Chicago Bears’ Caleb Williams, Ben Johnson <\/a>MORE: USC Trojans’ Lincoln Riley Reveals Team’s Most Underrated Players<\/a><\/p>\n And yet, optimism still lingers. Pate recalled visiting the Trojans in the spring and being struck by Riley\u2019s confidence.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like he had the movie script in his hand\u2026 he\u2019s got no doubt this is a great movie in my hands. You\u2019ll see come fall,\u201d he said, describing a head coach who believes USC is finally ready to prove critics wrong.<\/p>\n That duality\u2014the potential for USC to either collapse or climb back into contention\u2014is why Pate calls the Trojans one of the ultimate wild cards in 2025. The stakes are massive, and the range of possibilities is unlike almost any other program in the country.<\/p>\n As Pate himself put it: \u201cSo was that it? Does [Riley] really have a classic in the works? We\u2019ll see. I told you so in advance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The USC Trojans might be the hardest team in America to pin down heading into the 2025 season.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":154337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-154336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115046822999148040","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}