Where Do USC Trojans Go From Here After Falling To 3-2?

What was supposed to be a coronation tune-up for a top 10 contest with Penn State next week, emerged as an unlikely second-half competition and then dissolved into an utter catastrophe as the 8.5-point #11 USC Trojans shockingly lost to the unranked, 2-3 Minnesota Golden Gophers. As the Men of Troy have now fallen to 3-2, more specifically to 1-2 in BIG-10, existential questions have bubbled up once again with the season now hanging in the balance. What’s top of mind for the Trojan Family is where this team goes from here after having tumbled out of the Top 25 and now with zero margin for error to breakthrough in the inaugural 12-team college football playoff.

Where Do USC Trojans Go from Here After Falling To 3-2

Offensive Line Reassessment

The glaring issue from the Trojans’ loss was specifically the lack of production from each tackle, Elijah Paige and Mason Murphy. Both Paige and Murphy got repeatedly and decisively beaten on their individual matchups with the Golden Gopher edge rushers. This forced Miller Moss to take more unnecessary hits, step up into the pocket off schedule, and rush throws that were seemingly routine in weeks past. Lincoln Riley countered this masterfully, especially in the second half, with rushing in between the tackles on the back of Woody Marks, who accrued 134 yards rushing on 20 carries, in what was unquestionably his most dominant game with the Cardinal & Gold.

The north-south, inside the hash marks, running strategy took the Minnesota edge rushers surgically out of the game and enabled the Trojans to seemingly take insurmountable control up 17-10 with possession early in the fourth quarter, until it all changed (more on that in a second). However, if USC doesn’t fix their tackle play, competition against more complete defensive front sevens, specifically Penn State and Notre Dame, will be daunting given a simple straight-line running approach won’t be effective against a stouter linebacker room crashing down in the box.

Lincoln Riley’s Game Management

Most people would tell you that the game completely changed on Moss’ fourth-quarter interception at the Golden Gophers’ 35-yard line on 3 ^rd & four with 10:17 left in the game, where the Trojans’ leader was hit off the edge forcing a knuckleball interception. They’re not wrong, only incomplete. The contest flipped on its head the play before – when Marks was stopped for one yard on 2 ^nd & 5. To that point, Marks’ previous six carries netted in at least five yards or resulted in a touchdown. The moment Marks got stuffed on a single run, Riley NEVER called another run play the rest of the game – nine consecutive throws after that interception.

This is symptomatic of Riley over the years – he gets spooked in critical game moments whenever a single run play goes awry. Case in point, last year against Utah, Cal, and UCLA as well as several instances during his tenure at Oklahoma. Riley has “Kyle Shanahan syndrome” – he abandons balance on the ground when stress levels increase late in close games. Marks averaged 6.7 yards per carry, and then inexplicably vanished into the whipping Minnesota wind. Riley needs to look in the mirror on this strategic character quirk because there are only so many times you can get burned with this behavior without costing your team playoff berths and conference title games.

D’Anton Lynn’s Trojans Defense Against Larger Running Backs

This is now the second consecutive road game the Trojans’ defensive front wilted in the second half against a team that was exclusively run-oriented with a 215+ pound lead back. The Golden Gophers offensive star, Darius Taylor, had 144 yards on a staggering 25 carries that conjured up nightmares of Michigan’s Kalel Mullings. While the Golden Gophers had 169 yards passing, that was a statistical misnomer. 90 were simple checkdowns to running backs, 57 were basic bubble screens and only one throw for 22 yards had the ball in the air for more than 15 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. The Trojans got absolutely punked by a one-dimensional team…again.

This is now the fourth time in two years, Michigan and Minnesota this season, and two instances with UCLA in 2023 that Lynn’s defensive scheme has buckled in the second half against bigger running backs and run-heavy offensive systems. Lynn needs to assess his scheme, his numbers in the box, and the dimensions of his zone shell to mitigate the bleeding, particularly as the Trojans continue their inaugural BIG-10 campaign along with an end-of-season tussle with Notre Dame.

It’s only one game, but when you realize that Saturday was Minnesota’s first power five win of the season, that Michigan is looking much more like an unranked four-loss team by season’s end, and that the Men of Troy are winless on the road, if changes don’t arrive sweepingly in the next few days, the second half of this 2024 season will be a glorified preseason for 2025.

More must-reads:

• Joel Klatt Compares Alabama Progam To Lincoln Riley, But Not In A Good Way
• USC Trojans Star Signs Lucrative Nike Deal – ‘One Of The Richest Shoe Deals’
• Lincoln Riley Baffled By Gap Between Offensive Execution and Final Score