Paolo Uggetti, ESPN
LOS ANGELES — The attractions and sounds have been all too usual for USC.
A slumping Caleb Williams mustered a minute current to the Coliseum lovers who couldn’t cover their sadness. A throng of Utah gamers jeered the house population as they ran off the farmland in victory. And Lincoln Riley sat lonely on the podium attempting to give an explanation for how, for the 1/3 hour in 3 video games, Utah had as soon as once more crushed USC — this hour on a farmland function within the ultimate seconds that gave the Utes a 36-34 win.
“Two tough losses in a row and obviously not how any of us scripted this, but you can’t script it. It’s college football,” Riley stated. “It comes down to little things here and there, and we haven’t quite played clean enough here in the last couple of weeks to take advantage of it.”
Similar to he did later the loss to Notre Dame closing presen, Riley defended his staff’s struggle and chalked up the loss to a mixture of errors and shortcomings via each USC unit towards a tricky opponent.
However the Utes have proved to be greater than only a tricky matchup. They’ve develop into a specifically not possible riddle for Riley and Co. to unravel — an unofficial marker of ways a lot paintings USC nonetheless has to do to develop into what it hopes to be.
On Saturday, regardless of having a long way much less skill at the farmland than USC and being with out initiation quarterback Cameron Rising, the Utes’ identification and collective drive was once as soon as once more extra for the Trojans to deal with. Whittingham’s staff didn’t do anyone factor spectacularly, in lieu dressed in USC ill with a gentle offense and its commonplace stout protection.
USC, at the alternative hand, got into some usual traps as soon as once more. Even later making some adjustments to the offensive layout following the six-sack loss to Notre Dame — transferring Mason Murphy to proper secure and Jarett Kingston to proper take on time benching Florida switch Michael Tarquin — the layout may have seemed stepped forward, however the offense seemed just about as rhythmless because it did in South Bend.
Williams threw for best 256 yards and didn’t have a landing throw later initiation off the season with 23 touchdowns in seven video games. Age Utah’s Sione Vaki gathered 217 all-purpose yards on his personal, USC produced simply 145 speeding yards at the evening. The Utes, who had the Fifty fifth-ranked offense in SP+ entering the sport, outgained the Trojans’ third-ranked offense via 81 yards and held the ball for just about 10 mins extra.
Defensively, the Trojans reverted to unholy conduct at inopportune moments, lacking a couple of key tackles and permitting gamers corresponding to Vaki and quarterback Bryson Barnes to engineer obese performs. Barnes’ 23-yard scurry with not up to a tiny left within the duel was once the backbreaker that arrange the game-winning farmland function.
Riley, who didn’t build any gamers to be had to the media later the loss, stated he felt like closing week’s staff, which went 11-1 within the common season, may have overachieved. He stated this week’s staff may had been suffering from the expectancies that experience adopted.
“Everybody expects you to be good. Everybody expects that you can have a championship-caliber team,” Riley stated. “And when you’re constantly trying to live up to those expectations, you can kind of fall away from maybe what puts you there in that position in the first place.”
When requested about the ones expectancies and whether or not USC has fallen snip of them this season, Riley stated the staff has needed to “fight to keep things on our terms.”
“We don’t come in every single week talking about winning a national championship, going to the playoffs,” Riley stated. “I don’t know where that narrative starts. … If you let the outside set expectations, you’re always being measured up against that.”
As he has carried out later each akin victories and losses, Riley reiterated that USC nonetheless has enough to play games for. Even though its School Soccer Playoff probabilities may have evaporated later Saturday, the Trojans nonetheless have just one convention loss, creating a go back and forth again to the Pac-12 identify duel imaginable.
However later Saturday’s loss, it’ll shoot some paintings for USC to try this, for the reason that matchups towards Oregon, Washington and UCLA watch for and a 2d convention loss will most probably seal its destiny.
“It’s not coach speak, it’s not trying to create something that’s not there,” Riley stated. “There is a real opportunity for this team right now and this team can do it. Now we got to play better. We got to play cleaner, we got to coach better.”
If Riley’s debut season was once a show of USC’s possible, later the second one week has been a dose of truth that it’ll, certainly, shoot at some time and rising pains to succeed in stated possible. Riley may thrust back towards outdoor expectancies and hope his gamers forget about them however in the similar breath recognize that they aren’t going away.
If anything else, later a stretch like this, they’ll best ramp up.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Riley stated. “We signed up to do this thing for a long time.”
