Previewing USC's first season in Big Ten

The Big Ten will be even bigger this season. The league has expanded to 18 schools, with USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon as new additions. With the conference’s football media days starting Tuesday in Indianapolis, we caught up with Ryan Kartje, the USC beat reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

Kartje, a Michigan native and University of Michigan graduate, will bring his perspective to a transitional season. We spoke to Kartje about the program as it tries to be a contender in its inaugural campaign in a new conference. USC’s Big Ten opener will be Sept. 21 at Michigan.

Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Awful Announcing: How excited are fans about this first season in the Big Ten?

“I think USC fans are excited about the prospect of being on a bigger stage. I think there’s always been a sense at USC, especially through the Pete Carroll era, that they were carrying the rest of the conference. Now that’s sort of a rich idea now, but it sort of reiterates that USC is a big-time program. That is what’s so interesting about this season. Very quickly we will see if they are that program. I think fans understand that this first impression is important, especially when you open your Big Ten season at the Big House against the defending national champions.”

How do people feel about Lincoln Riley?

“I think people are still confident that he is an offensive mastermind, and that he is capable of maximizing whatever offensive talent that USC is inherently going to get just because it’s USC and the talent pool in Southern California is so good. Fans have moved away from the initial hero-worship stage and started to ask questions. Why is the defense still not fixed? Why are certain aspects of this program still sloppy? Why did Caleb Williams take a step back in Year 2? There are a lot of legitimate questions that I think Riley would probably cop to himself. But again, entering the Big Ten is also a proving ground for Lincoln Riley. So, fans are ready to embrace him again, but I think they’re also a little guarded.”

What’s it like covering Riley?

“He’s a very insightful person. When you ask him a good question, you’re always going to get a good answer, which I very much appreciate. Ultimately, I wouldn’t say that he fully embraces the media. I think he probably views that he has more important aspects to his job. And maybe he’s right about that. There have certainly been some clashes with the media just as a whole with Lincoln, both here and in Oklahoma. It’s always an interesting trip covering anyone at USC. Lincoln is certainly no different in that regard.”

What are realistic expectations for USC?

“I think this is a team that’s probably in the seven-to-nine-win range. Maybe their fans are hoping it’s more in the nine-to-11-win range. There are so many unanswered questions about this team. What does Miller Moss look like at quarterback? What does a new defensive scheme do? Are the skilled position players going to take another step forward? A lot of things have to go right. And then you throw in a very tough schedule that starts with LSU and has Michigan. There are a lot of obstacles in the way.”

What are realistic expectations for Moss?

“That is a huge question coming into this season. I don’t expect him to be as good as his Holiday Bowl performance suggested. But that said, not everyone can throw six touchdowns every game. He’s been in the system for several years. Cerebrally, he has the pieces to be a very good quarterback. That said, I think the ceiling with USC’s offense has come down considerably from where it was with Caleb Williams. The question is: How does Lincoln Riley adjust that offense to Miller Moss? In a lot of ways, being unmoored from Caleb’s talent, Lincoln can do a little bit more of what he wants specifically. I think Miller will be good at operating within that system. So it’s really on Lincoln to maximize Miller Moss’s ability.”

What steps has Riley taken to fix the defense?

What steps has Riley taken to fix the defense? “They got rid of Alex Grinch before the end of last season. We later found out he was one of the highest-paid coordinators on either side of the ball in college football. They replaced him with D’Anton Lynn, who was at UCLA, and has only been a defensive coordinator for one year. He also is now one of the highest-paid coordinators in college football. So, they’re betting a lot on D’Anton Lynn being able to translate his one year of legitimate success at UCLA across town to USC, where maybe the talent pool on the defense wasn’t quite as good as it was at UCLA last year. Time will tell on that front. They have torn down the defense to the studs and built it back up, and we have no idea what it’s going to look like. But it does seem like what we saw in the spring is it’s at least improved on the back end and the secondary. Beyond that, definitely still a mystery.”

Who are some of the newcomers to watch out for?

“John Humphrey and Kamari Ramsey, two of the best players on that UCLA defense last year, are now at USC. I think both could emerge as leaders of the defense. Having two of those guys in the secondary would be a lot better than anything they’ve had the last couple of years.”

Given your background, how interesting will the USC-Michigan game be for you?

“I grew up pretty close to Ann Arbor. I graduated from the University of Michigan, so deeply entrenched in the Big Ten football world. That will be a fascinating game. I’m excited to see it. I haven’t been back to the Big House in a long time. Covering college football, the bonds of your college days start to fade away. I’m sure there will be USC fans hassling me in the lead-up to that game and probably even after. But it’ll be a good game for sure. I’ll be fascinated to see how many USC fans come out.”

Have you had any unusual interactions with USC fans?

“Funny enough, the most unusual USC encounter I had was while I was a UCLA beat writer with the OC Register. I got a letter sent to my apartment. It was a printed-out letter, center aligned, all caps, 20 font. I don’t even remember exactly what it said. Jim Mora was the coach at UCLA at the time. It said: ‘You think Jim Mora walks on water.’ It was a very bizarre, serial killer-y letter that freaked my then-girlfriend, now wife out at the time. That was probably the weirdest thing that had ever happened.”

Did you do anything?

“I told my editors, but there’s not much you can do. The OC Register didn’t have money for a security detail. But it was all fine. Generally, USC fans have been good to me in person. Online, it’s sometimes a different story.”

The post The L.A. Times’ Ryan Kartje on USC’s inaugural Big Ten season appeared first on Awful Announcing .