Roundtable: What does USC have to do to beat Notre Dame on Saturday?
Caleb Williams leaps to throw as ARIZ Wildcats LB Justin Flowe closes in at the Coliseum on Saturday. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
How concerned should USC be about its defense and are there any quick fixes available?
Ryan Kartje (LAT): Lincoln Riley has done his best to project confidence about where USC’s defense is headed, but nothing about the last three games suggests the Trojans will be fine going forward. Three of the six teams USC faced so far rank among the lowest-scoring groups in college football. We have yet to see the Trojans face an explosive offense, and yet they’ve still coughed up 421 yards per game, among the bottom 25 nationally. The best quarterback USC has faced so far might honestly be Arizona’s Noah Fifita, who torched the secondary for 303 yards and five touchdowns on Saturday night.
Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Oregon’s Bo Nix, both Heisman candidates in their own right, have to be licking their chops right now. That’s not to say USC can’t figure some things out before those big matchups in November. The pass-rush tandem of Solomon Byrd and Jamil Muhammad has been a revelation, and Bear Alexander has been a terror on the interior. But some issues, like tackling on the perimeter, continue to go unsolved. Now the secondary is banged up. The inside linebackers are underachieving. You can understand why some USC fans are already spiraling, in spite of the 6-0 start.
Thuc Nhi Nguyen (LAT): Should USC be concerned? Yes. Very concerned. But six games into the season, I almost feel like teams have shown who they are and there’s not much to be done to change it. USC could just be the team that will miss two tackles while giving up an 80-yard touchdown on a simple screen pass then come up with a huge tackle for loss on the next play. Fans are going to hate it. I hope everyone is working on their favorite stress-relief methods each week. But perhaps the best-case scenario is that the Trojans can at least produce the big play when the big play is needed. They got killed on that toss play several times against Arizona, but when they needed the stop on the two-point conversion attempt in triple overtime, they got it. And it all counts as a win in the end.
J. Brady McCollough (LAT): After an offseason that was supposed to be devoted to fixing its defense, USC finds itself 109th nationally in total defense and 76th in scoring defense halfway through the season. This is an unequivocal failure, to the point that few USC fans would have any issue with Lincoln Riley firing Alex Grinch midseason even though such a move would traditionally be extremely risky. But could USC’s defense play any worse with a new coordinator who has fresh eyes on the situation than it did on Saturday against Arizona? Whatever Grinch is putting out there to the Trojans isn’t sticking. Since Riley won’t make a rash move against his guy, USC will have to tinker with its scheme and personnel. I’m no defensive expert, but the best thing the Trojans could do is simplify the scheme and choose personnel who are most likely to be in the right place. When I watch USC’s players, I don’t see much confidence in what their job is and how to execute it on each play.
Have your expectations of USC changed after six games?
Nguyen: There were College Football Playoff hopes heading into the season, but with a schedule that included road games at Notre Dame and Oregon and hosting Washington, I can’t say I believed those hopes were truly expectations. It never felt plausible that the Trojans were going to run the table, but USC looks even further from the playoff than anticipated at this point in the season. With the performance of other Pac-12 teams, I’m wondering whether the Trojans even make it to the conference championship game now.
Kartje: I knew USC wouldn’t fix its defense overnight, but with a generational quarterback like Caleb Williams, maybe it wouldn’t matter so much in the grand scheme. Well, ummm … not so sure that’s the case. USC is still 6-0, and that counts for something. But you don’t need a “trained eye” to understand the defense is bound to cost USC a game, sooner rather than later. Against teams like Washington and Oregon, even Williams won’t be able to save them. Both the Huskies and Ducks are serious playoff contenders that pile up more yards than any other offense in college football, USC’s included. They could very well combine for 1,000 yards and 100 points when they face the Trojans during consecutive weeks next month. With Notre Dame and Utah upcoming, USC may not even make it that far unscathed.
McCollough: Well, I picked USC to make the playoff, and now I am having a very hard time seeing that happen. For one, it’s a crowded field nationally. Georgia isn’t going anywhere. The Big Ten will get at least one team from Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. Oklahoma and Texas are likely to play again with a playoff spot potentially up for grabs. Florida State has positioned itself well for the stretch run. And that’s not even mentioning Washington and Oregon, which play Saturday in a game that will spring one of them forward in the discussion. Entering the season, I had assumed that 12-1 would get USC into the playoff, but I am no longer certain of that. And, most importantly, I’m far less certain of the Trojans’ ability to navigate this schedule losing one game.
What does USC have to do to beat Notre Dame?
Nguyen: Just tackle someone on the first try. USC missed 15 tackles against Arizona State and 17 tackles apiece against Colorado and Arizona. Whether it’s a combination of bad technique, bad angles or a bad mentality, the Trojans need to figure out their tackling woes to make anything happen on defense.
Kartje: Louisville provided the blueprint in its upset win over Notre Dame last Saturday: It starts with getting pressure on Irish quarterback Sam Hartman. It’s paramount that USC’s pass rush makes Hartman uncomfortable. A bounce-back game from the Trojans’ star passer couldn’t hurt, either. Williams looked a little out of sorts against Arizona, and without him playing at his peak, USC might struggle to win any big games from here.
McCollough: This goes against Riley’s identity as a coach, but it wouldn’t hurt to slow down the tempo a bit on offense and run the ball more with standout running back MarShawn Lloyd. Simply put, USC’s defense needs to be on the field less, not more, so that the Trojans aren’t gassed for what is sure to be a hard-fought fourth quarter in South Bend.
Who has surprised you the most from USC?
Kartje: I didn’t anticipate that MarShawn Lloyd would become such an essential part of USC’s offense so quickly, but there’s no one outside of Williams who has made a bigger impact. Lloyd is averaging 7.75 yards per carry, nearly five of which have come after contact. Not only is he a load to take down, but he’s more nimble than expected, just as capable of switching directions or shaking off defenders as he is bowling them over. Relying on the run game might not come naturally to Riley, but with Lloyd looking like one of the best USC ball carriers in recent memory, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to have Williams hand it off more often.
Nguyen: Brenden Rice’s emergence in the passing game has been huge for the Trojans. Caleb Williams gets so much (deserved) credit, but Rice saved his quarterback on several throws against Arizona, adjusting to an under-thrown pass and turning it into a huge gain. Everyone was so excited about a new group of freshman receivers, including five-star Zachariah Branch who has provided huge fireworks on special teams, but Rice’s consistency has been an underrated asset in one of the most prolific offenses in the country.
latimes.com
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Lincoln Riley stands by USC defense amid heavy criticism: ‘I like the job we are doing there’ USC has given up 40-plus points in back-to-back conference games Cameron Salerno (CBSSports.com) — “There’s a lot of great things happening here,” Lincoln Riley said. “We will own the things that need to get better. People need to make sure they’re seeing the other side of it as well. That’s what we have been trying to say for a long time. … we are venting a little bit of frustration with that to be completely honest. I like the job we are doing… Read more »
When you rank #109 in the nation in total defense, there are NOT “a lot of great things happening”! LR is shoveling out Traveler’s stable. The #109 defense goes against the #35 offense (ND), while the #12 defense (ND) goes against the #1 scoring offense should be a wild one.
Shotgun Spratling @ShotgunSpr
USC twice got caught with only 10 men on the field on CRUCIAL fourth-quarter plays against Arizona.
Play 1: Lincoln Riley rushing to call timeout on UofA fourth-and-goal snap.
Play 2: Trojans unprepared as play clock winds down before Wildcats attempt potential go-ahead FG.
Just tell Freeman both sides will just play with 10. Save a lot of confusion with both teams!
New reporting shows Pac-12 died because CEO Group didn’t grasp the situation
This has already been revisited over and over, so I’m not interested in rehashing it again here. But for those who would still like a few more gaps filled in, here’s a Trojans Wire report from Matt Wadleigh:
UTAH PRESIDENT STATEMENT
GEORGE KLIAVKOFF MISPLAYED
COMMUNICATION FAILURE
ALL ARE TO BLAME
PAC-2 SHOWING ITS WORTH
EVERYBODY WANTED PAC-12 TO LAST
KLIAVKOFF’S FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP
LA SCHOOLS DEPARTING WAS A WARNING
STRONG PAC-12
PRESIDENTS DIDN’T ACTUALLY THINK $50 MILLION PER SCHOOL WAS REALISTIC
yahoo.com
Whats funny is they probably still can’t grasp it and don’t understand where all that money they need is going to come from.
Some arm chair observations on USC beating ND. On offense, quit telegraphing run or pass. Put the RB 2-3 yards behind Caleb every play. Have a good mix up run and pass then play action will start to work. Quit taking so long with the ROP. Caleb quit trying to make a Heisman play every play. On defense, the players you have can’t run your schemes, not sure if anyone can. A good coach adapts his game plan to fit his players. You don’t need to out scheme the ND offense. A base defense with SC’s talent will be enough… Read more »
You sound like me.
Great minds and all that!😉
Poor 1-4 STAN. They have another miserably bad team this season, as usual lately (15-32 since 2019), and are traveling to Boulder this weekend to face Prime and his massively rejuvenated Buffs. And now it looks like two-way phenom Travis Hunter will have recovered sufficiently from his liver injury to get back on the field. Good luck with that Cardinal.
I thought the Board might enjoy the exchange I had with a OU grad I know well. When Riley went to SC and Venables to OU, his thought was that both teams improved. He thought Venables might be a better fit for OU than Riley and Riley was a huge upgrade for SC. After the games last Saturday, I remembered our conversation and agreed, OU is a better team under Venables than under Riley. So, I told him “Your welcome” (meaning, of course, SC taking Riley had improved OU). His response was, “No,thank you for getting rid of Grinch as… Read more »
After watching OU from afar last season, I thought Brent Venables was in way over his head. Now it looks like I was hilariously wrong in that regard. This year so far, I would say that OU has shown the biggest improvement in all of CFB outside of CU, which nearly beat USC under Prime. I’m just glad we’re not playing OU next week instead of ND. With Caleb, USC might win in South Bend. At least I’ve got decent-sized hope for that. But I think that Venables has already amazingly and quite quickly moved past USC with a much… Read more »
Both OU and TX IMO would beat this SC team. I think handily. But, for no reason I can explain or even justify, I feel SC will beat this ND team in South Bend. Should not happen, but I have that intuition.
Would you have the same intuition if USC didn’t have Caleb?
No way to know. But, I think without Caleb, my intuition would move from being irrational to insane.
Nice hedge. I knew I wouldn’t be able to pin you down.
Personally, I don’t think USC would get within 14 points, probably more, if Miller Moss were taking our snaps in South Bend.
I have no idea what my intuition is based on. As I said, it is irrational. Even with Caleb, ND should beat us by 14 or more. If our OL and D play like they have the last three games, no way we beat the Irish. Why should I think things will change? Cannot explain it. Remember, the computer projections you put up? Even with Caleb, based on our past performance, we have only a 42% change of winning. I think that is rational.
What you’re saying is that USC still has an some bizarre irrational chance of beating ND in South Bend, even with Miller Moss as QB.
My take is that without Miracle Man Caleb, USC has no absolutely no chance whatsoever of beating ND in South Bend, not even in Fantasy Land.
Thanks for your responses. I appreciate your candor.
Gomer teams aside … SC always seems to play well in SB. Even Mike Van Raahoorst ( Miller Moss like) and Reggie Perry battled hard there, in the 90’s, before blowing it at the end.
I expect SC to play well. Of course, NDs O, despite their bad OC will move the ball at will. The weather too, looks to be a factor.
If we get out coached. We have big problems.
I’ve been to South Bend four times, not once during the Helton years, and have never seen USC win there, despite having very good teams. It was a little much to expect to beat Joe Montana in SB, I get it. He had a NC team. But the other three losses just showed me how difficult it has been for USC to win in the House That Rockne Built, except for when Pete Carroll coached us. USC has not won in South Bend since 2011. Battling hard doesn’t do it for me at all. It’s all about scoreboard baby, unless… Read more »
Went to each at SB battle since 1983 ( quit during the Kiffy/Suck/Gomer years) and didn’t see a win until 1997. Then SC rattled off wins in 4 straight from 2003 to 2009! (5 but didn’t go in 2011). Looking forward to starting another streak Saturday. A win would be huge.
From the experience of visiting south bend a dozen or so times to watch this game in Octobers past, the ND home advantage is worth a full seven points to them, IMHO.
Remember when they let the grass grow long to slow us down? That didn’t work out so well for them. At least they can’t try that again.
One of our players once got tangled up in the overgrown grass and really hurt himself if I remember correctly. Little Leprechaun Holtz was never above such dangerous shenanigans. One of my fave SC/ND games of all time is when Mark Cusano batted down Ron Powlus’ 4th down pass in OT to win it for USC 27-20 in ’96, and finally terminate the horrible Holtz streak. Holtz was so upset he quit coaching the Irish. Perfect justice to say the least, and I relished the win on the Coliseum field, listening to the band after the win because we all… Read more »
Dez Reed 2005 opening kick off
What I don’t want to see is the receivers run to a spot and then stop trying to gt open. That’s a killer and Riley should send them off the field. And for the tackling? Work on the fundementals. Practice tackling until the defense s sick of it. Go back to basics and stay on them during the week.
I’ve somehow managed to accept quite a while ago that USC can’t win games by stopping people. But that doesn’t mean we are entirely feeble on D! As well-stated by the LAT’s Thuc Nhi Nguyen — “USC could just be the team that will miss two tackles while giving up an 80-yard touchdown on a simple screen pass then come up with a huge tackle for loss on the next play. Fans are going to hate it. I hope everyone is working on their favorite stress-relief methods each week. But perhaps the best-case scenario is that the Trojans can at… Read more »
Zona simply ran the toss play to short side of the field … had they went the other way. One missed tackle, maybe two and score.
USC’s D is ridiculously and frequently easy to beat as has been demonstrated by most of the teams on our schedule so far, as well as all of last year.
It should be very exciting to see if USC can somehow miraculously become a totally different defensive team against the Irish.
I don’t see how Alex Grinch suddenly makes that happen, but maybe he’s been saving his super secret defensive approach for this upcoming Saturday. Go Alex! You’re up against a disappointing and mediocre group of Domers led by their questionable, possibly over-his-head coach. Make it happen!
I have that same feeling, not sure why.
Grinch gets schooled vs ND … it’s time to go. Which I believe will happen with a loss. The confidence opposing Os have vs woeful inexplainable D is what is mostly annoying. Finally, we go up 28-20, momentum galore, big crowd in to it. Boom Zona goes 92 ydS converting a 2nd and 23 (3rd and 9) two 4th downs and a 2 pt conversion. Caleb brilliant 18 yd TD run in 1st OT, we got it … nah 1 play easy lob TD to tie ( and didn’t go for 2 !). Well maybe this is just the Cardiac… Read more »
USC has gone into ND with worse teams and much better teams, and the outcome it seems is quite up in the air until the game ends. This is one of those games where emotion plays a big part, I think much more for USC than ND, especially this season. Does Riley have an offense that nobody has seen ready to break out? Does Grinch finally scale back the defensive schemes and let the boys play? I have been wrong about this team since game one, but for some reason something is saying USC is going to blow everybody away… Read more »
Steveg, I have the same feeling. I cannot explain it Candidly it is irrational. Our OL has played like crap for the last three games against lesser teams, and our D is a grease fire led by at best a mediocre DC. Our second best player on O (Zech Branch) is not playing. It makes zero sense, but something inside me shares your feeling.
My rationale is that Riley is smart enough to have a bag full of offensive plays and formations nobody has seen. With a few stops by the defense with someone handcuffing Grinch so he cannot signal defensive bizarre schemes we can pull it off. I do think the bodies are there on the front 6, now if the DBs will just look for the ball.
Depends on which Caleb shows up. If the one that played Arizona in the first half shows up we are doomed. If the one that played Stanford shows up we’ll have a nice night.
and…..I’am not knocking him…..every human being has an off day every so often…..as long as it does not become the norm.
Without Caleb, USC would have definitely already lost to both CU and ARIZ, probably by big margins. We’d be 4-2 at best and facing destruction derby in South Bend on Saturday.
Miller Moss never gets a chance to play, as was widely hoped for before the season, because USC can’t afford to put him in. Thank God we have Caleb or LR would be backpedaling every week faster than an AA DB.
Totally agree. All of us were willing to give LR a chance on keeping Grinch (although I was convinced that it was a huge mistake). Well, LR laid a gigantic egg with that decision, showing as you point out below, that LR simply does not understand D. And, without Caleb, this team is at best a 6-6 team, if that. Really amazing that one player could make that much difference, but he clearly does.
Is there another player on this USC Roster (and per the USC “HYPE” there should be at least 3-4) that will be a top 15-20 First Round picks in the next Draft ? ……The USC HYPE said all spring and Summer “YES ” to that question .
Too reach the highest possible level this team Needs more than one ……I’ll call it Super Star player because having just one (Caleb ) ain’t gonna get it done …..Fight On !!!!!
Having a plan that relies too much on Caleb is a bad plan . And I put this thought out there >>>>> If 60% of the reason this USC Team wins game is Caleb ( one single human being) than what does that say about the rest of this roster ????? …..Overrated ?????
Without a doubt. The Portal has proven to be a very dicey talent provider, to say the least.
Since “The Portal idea ” was first announced I have been putting less …….Say “Stock ” in it’s overall value …..Fight On !!!!!
First Caleb Williams is enough to beat Notre Dame if the USC defense is just average. Caleb is more polished than people see. For instance his posturing about staying in college isn’t about staying in college. He’s telling the teams he likes to trade up if they want him. (Although I have long maintained that the draft is a crappy way to go for quarterbacks.) Anyway it’s getting to the point where people are wondering if offensive genius is enough to be a head coach. Many people including myself are saying Riley doesn’t care about defense and thus will never… Read more »
I used to think Lincoln Riley was an absolute shoo-in to bring USC at least one NC.
But based on his inability to fix severe defensive problems at both super high-profile OU and USC, I’ve backed off that hope, at least until LR changes his coaching philosophy to include the side of the ball he obviously knows little about.