In my analysis for today’s paper, I look at how expectations are so high after the Rose Bowl that the Trojans are a popular choice to make the College Football Playoff next season. But that creates a lot more pressure.
Excerpt: The truth for USC in 2016 was it played with almost no pressure during its nine-game winning streak. The Trojans were always a long shot to win the Pac-12 after losing their first two games. The national media gave up on them after a 1-3 start.
So whatever USC did after that first month was going to be a bonus after expectations plummeted. Next year, one loss could have devastating implications for a team that will be told by everyone this offseason it can be national champs.
It also doesn’t help that three projected starters — offensive tackle E.J. Price, defensive tackle Noah Jefferson, linebacker Osa Masina — are no longer part of the program.
If the team can’t handle the extra pressure and expectations that come with the possible position to be the national champs, then it doesn’t deserve it. Every team and individual which is in that position goes through it, and only those that are strong-willed and passionate for winning can overcome them and win the precious prizes. And we know it’s not reserved for everybody but a select few. Having said that, I think SC team will have a better record than 10-3 next season because Darnold won’t need to go through another QB controversy, and he’ll probably be on another level skill-wise and on mental preparations, if that’s even possible. LOL! And many guys in defense and skill positions will return. Yes, another NC seems to be definitely within reach next season. SC for NC, and Darnold for Heisman! Let’s go, boys!
Realistically..Pac 12 Champions and Rose Bowl.
Realistic? Yes. Exciting? No.
Yup. They are still a few years away from being very good. Next year they will have a full roster. In 2018 their continuety will be better.
We need a big Stevie T replacement, or two. Bigelow’s always hurt. Hope viable plans are in the works.
Darnold, if he stays healthy, will be on the #1 NFL draft status watchlist. He’s already better than #1 Jared Goff and he’s not even 20 years old.
Staff changes could be key, both for recruiting, continuity and otherwise. Will Nansen and Bradford be here after LOI Day? Will others be cherry picked after SC’s strong finish as happens sometimes?
Seems like sched will be tougher too. So many variables.
Here’s to a final ranking of #3, maybe 4! That would be awesome after our utterly horrendous start, involving both the loss of games and players.
It is hard to keep our expectations controlled and realistic after having a season that kept growing in excitement week after week following the much needed change at QB. I agree, Jack B, that a great many positive developments need to occur (good recruiting, maintaining a quality coaching staff, keeping the injury bug at bay) for our 2016 trend of success to continue and yes, accelerate into the 2017 season. My wish is that all these things continue–I would love to see the Trojans in the NC game! After all, the location for the 2017 season national championship game is right here in Atlanta!
Forgive me for being selfish!
I’m just not convinced USC has the people on both sides of the trenches to get to the very top.
I don’t see it right now, and we’d have to depend on incoming frosh people to make it happen. Yet our incoming class doesn’t look that strong at either OL or DL.
We shall see. In Darnold We Trust!
Yes, there’s no doubt about it. Building the interior lines is the key!
Saw this quote from Helton in the Orange County Register:
Helton highlighted the position [nose tackle] as a particular offseason focus.
“Big men win games,” he said.
Lets just have another season free of drama and make a run at a Pac 12 championship. Just be relevant for things we do on the field. So glad to have a coach who gets it and is growing in the job.
#nofacecupping
15-0 and and a national championship is the goal. Anything short of it will be failure. SD will take SC back to the Promised Land!
Not with that defense
Carroll always said the Rose Bowl was the Goal, win the conference and the rest would work itself out. With the CFP now maybe winning the non conference games and SOS are more important but it’s still true, the goal should always be win the conference, NC will follow if you just keep winning.
Yes.
Seriously?….tell that to Clay Helton
Expectations are due to what just happened this past Monday evening and for 2017, a very workable/winnable schedule.
Were bel-air tech to have had a season as USC just had yea verily THAT would be pressure for them – they have no idea how to get there and the 1998 season is almost 20 years ago.
And their accidental NC was 44 years prior to it. LOL!
You mean tbe .5 half stick of gum!?! Lol
LMAO!
Yeah – ther3e it was…beat Miami and go to the inaugural BCS CG but nooooo they ‘bruined’ it….TN defeated FL St.
This 2016 team survived sanctions and coaching carousel. They worked hard and fought on for this Rose Bowl Victory. I don’t care and the team should not have to worry about next season until then. They deserved rightfully to enjoy what they accomplished. Now is not the time to think what if and all that. I can’t care about what went right and wrong. I know what we have done. I am a proud Trojan and I look forward to the future. However, first congratulations 2016 team! You were awesome!
No pressure, USC 1- 3 and no pressure? If anything, the one thing we can consume from these players and it’s coaching staff is their resilience, focuse after this season. Who says those three were definite starters? Spring Football determines depth charts not conjecture.
SC has won 11 national championships and came close to winning another 10 or so. Pressure?– That’s why kids go to SC, to have a chance at that title. Embrace that pressure.
Exactly. Pressure is what deflates the ruins.
Next year most likely will be more like that last one. They will have to bring in newcomers in key positions and will be prone to struggle if not lose some games, during the first 5 or 6 games of the year (Western Michigan, Texas, revamped ND and Stanford). Expectations could be deflated in the first half and once again and the key question would be can they develop in the second half? They came together this year by losing in first four games. They don’t have the returning talent in key line positions like they had in years when they were champs. And they need backups like Quinton Powell. But there are great opportunities for newcomers who want to play early and play with Darnold & Co. They are an exciting wild card team.
USC always has pressure to win every game – no matter if they start 1-3 or are on sanctions.
USC lost starters Mitchell, Lobendahn and Bigelow this year and did just fine.
#FaultyAnalysis
All of Wolf ‘s points are valid, but in typical Wolf fashion, the focus is on the potential pitfalls and problems, with little or no mention of what is right with the program. We win a Rose Bowl, will finish in the top five, but look at all of the shortcomings we possess!
Exactly. The Blogger’s conclusion should be USC will be competing for the NC next year – and that’s a great thing.
Yep – a weak-willed team couldn’t have come back from 14 points down in the Rose in the 4th quarter. This is a strong team – with all the intangibles. I like their chances.
Physical football teams gave USC problems all season, and the Penn State game was no different. But fortunately for SC, very few in the PAC 12 play that type of game, so I expect them to win the conference. And like I mentioned before, Clay Helton better get some quality interior, lineman , because Sam Darnold’s leaves after next season.
Fred , so right on Darnold. If he wins Heisman and/or the top pick or in top 5 of draft he should go to NFL. Everybody should have learned from what happened to Barkley
Barkely was never a TOP 10 pick ! Mel Kiper doesn’t know what he’s talking about let alone Todd McShay…
Hahah… I’ve been saying that about Todd McShay since he started at espn . He makes the obvious predictions, and when he reaches, he’s always wrong .
Ya Fred, that’s those famous “experts” I keep talkin about.
Darnold is here 2018
Darnold is A USC legacy …he’ll stay until he gets his Degree…so we have him until 2018… He loves the school.
I guess you personally know him, or somebody on the coaching staff, like most of the bloggers do , but nevertheless, that’s a good thing.
LOL, he’s gone after his Jr year
You nailed it. Darnold probably leaves next year, especially if he improves on this year. But keeps by him healthy and getting good interior line play to develop the running game is the difference between this team being a playoff team or in the outside looking in. I’d add interior D line play as well as a key need for improvement.
I totally agree
Fool to leave after next year, not ready for the NFL
Good morning to you too Negative Nancy! No hope…all is lost…we are all going to die…have a nice day!
Downer Debbie blogs again …and again….and again……
The schedule is very doable to go 12-0 next year based on the current status of Notre Dame and UCLA. No Oregon or Washington on schedule unless in conf championship and Texas is under new leadership so it will take a few uears to rebound. I say the Trojans go 13-0 , Pac12 Champs, and to the CFP
You sound like a fan!
He’s just a groveling little gutty. What’s he gonna say? ucla’s gonna beat us? Sure. Great to see these ucla punks on their knees. They’re officially hopeless.
The only caveat to my Pac12 prediction and CFP is that given where USC finished and now that teams have been more exposed to Darnold the Defensive Coordinators make adjustments. That plus the defense was less than stellar against Penn St . Barclays nearly 200 yards looked like the Stanford footprint against us.
When was the last time you little gutties beat STAN? How many years ago was it. Can you count that high?
Come on. Spit it out. I dare you.
What has to be galling is Mora wondering what brick is heading his way next? Here he was bragging on how he was the winningest 1st 4 year coach in bel-air tech history (never mind that they only played 9 – 10 games 40 years ago) and ‘ka-boom’ 3rd fiddle behind the lambs and esp. USC.
Imagine if we had had to watch the bruins play at the Coliseum as those poor saps did last Monday and then, see youtube, have their fans record their comments for a USC defeat only to see what true competitiveness looks like?
Better hope their basketball team wins huh?
Big recruiting decision this weekend with No 1 rated OL Foster Sarell. Stanford, Wash, USC on his list, but leaning toward Stanford or UW
Well that sounds like someone who wants a guaranteed starting position rather than having to work for it.
Wonder why he isn’t considering that dumpster fire at ucla?
USC’s gonna maul you little gutties yet again in recruiting. Are The Chimp’s recruits ranked in the top 50 yet? What is so wrong with ucla?
By the way, USC loved owning your rented field again. Bow down little gutty. Or bend over. You’re irrelevant.
You should stick to following recruits that like your dumpy program. What’s wrong? They too hard to find? Don’t worry. You’ll get a good commit sooner or later. There’s a sucker born every minute.
Recruiting will be the key and as of right now it looks like a fail
So…A year ago this program had gone through the Sark train wreck, the questionable hiring of Helton and a lackluster Holiday Bowl. Now we have a 9 game win streak, an historic Rose Bowl win, and expectations to make the CFP next year. Wow it’s great to be a Trojan! Fight The F*** On!
I agree, SC will definitely have a target on its back & the expectations for next year will create a great deal of pressure. Had the team not had its magical run to the Rose Bowl the entire team & CH in particular would have had a crushing level of pressure applied on them as well. There is no escaping the expectations of the fans, the press, & the administration. Win, and the pressure is cranked up a notch expecting even better results. Lose and the pressure is heightened by the nit picking of each & every detail of the program. Pressure cannot be avoided. I am sure that CH and his players would rather have the pressure of positive expectations rather than the pressure a losing program feels. The Rose Bowl win marked their exit from the negative pressure of the past 4 years. If you want proof of the pressure look no further than the absolute unbridled joy the team showed when the winning FG went through the goal posts. What we saw and we experienced vicariously was 4 years of frustration being blown sky high.
Where in the hell was EJ Price rated a top 10 recruit nationally? He wasn’t even top 10 in his own state according to 247.
It is unbelievable how you purposefully distort facts to fit your negative narrative. I know this is kind of beating a dead horse, something you’re also prone to, but you are a disgrace to your profession.
Coming into 2016, Kenny Bigelow and Steven Mitchell were starters and Osa Masina was a projected starter. They were all lost for the season one way or another and USC won the freaking Rose Bowl!!
Also it’s ludicrous to say that a coaching staff at a traditional powerhouse has no pressure on them after starting out 1-3, particularly after the way USC lost to Alabama. Every pundit in the country was not saying if, but when Clay Helton would be fired.
This team withstood this roller coaster of a season and showed incredible resolve in finishing the way that they did.
It’s ludicrous to say that anyone other than Darnold turned the team around. That’s what great leaders do. Darnold saved Helton”s job.
A little early to worry about what if’s of next year. Lets look at the recruiting process first. USC must come up with DL’s, LB’s, and OL’s. JC route could help bolster them, or another grad transfer.
Sure Helton and the boys are working hard, and the fact Wolf doesn’t print anything is because he doesn’t know anything. One step at a time, and we all know every opposing team will play USC next season like it is their Rose Bowl game. USC is back on top, feels good.
Did anyone else feel sick when the Rose Bowl announcers congratulated PSU for returning to the Rose Bowl after crippling sanctions that “should have held the program down for a decade,” but no mention of USC – who had more severe sanctions (which weren’t reduced) and were playing in the same Rose Bowl?
That was a glaring and somewhat maddening oversight in my view. i was waiting for them to mention USC’s sanctions comeback which was more dramatic than Penn State’s and they never did. SC has had to overcome more BS than any program deserves even if some of it was self-inflicted. There should’ve been some mention of the way the program has held up and responded to all the headwinds it’s faced.
I did. That’s funny. Completely glossed over. I thought the same thing, “Wait, that’s great and all for them, but what about us?”
Yes, and they acted as if Penn State had already won the game- this was said with 10:30 left in the 3rd Qtr- ridiculous
Other sports reporters will rave over a team or individuals success when it happens. Wolf seems incapable of that with SC. If it wasn’t for all you others posting great comments this site would collapse.
So those that hate the Blogger are actually enabling him?
That or is he a genius that is just working us with the obvious bias?
So the Blogger is an Evil Genius?
What a back handed article Wolf !!!! If we had barley squeaked by in all 9 straight victories, or benefited from poor ref decisions … I would say you have an argument . Outside of the Utah game on the road … USC handily beat everyone except Penn State. And I think is speak further that we came back against PSU, without Adoree, Cam Smith ,and JuJu wasn’t Darnold Favorite target at any point of the season. This team , which is a young team , more than showed it’s capable of handling pressure… If you want to pick on the Colorado game and us beating them by 1…You can, but we let them stay in the game by fumbling the ball… But teams who can’t handle the pressure fold … This team has not folded once ! after the UTAH game… At Washington , when they scored ,and we turned the ball over ,and moment was building for the HUSKIES… we dug in and answered back.. To do that on the road, against a top ranked team , shows they can handle pressure. To be down by 14 points, and out score a team 17-0 in the 4th qtr of the RoseBowl is handling the pressure. Especially when your opponent is used to dominating the 4th qtr.
So for you to question this team Nerve, and Poise is absolutely disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourself to try and pick “Kids” after showing the Bravery,Nerve and Poise to Fight On !
Quite the strong out of conference schedule. Western Michigan, Texas, and Notre Dame are all quality programs. No Idaho next year. No Washington or Oregon next year though means the conference schedule is on the weaker side.
Line play will be the key. Skill positions, particularly Darnold, are extremely talented. But poor O line play could doom the Trojans. Also, an injury to Darnold would kill the team’s chances.
The Trojans will be picked to win the conference but whether they pull it off will be determined in the trenches. USC has constant pressure to win. They are one of maybe a dozen programs who are always the other team’s top opponent. I don’t think pressure is the key. It’s much simpler–line play on both sides.
Scott, this time, hit all the concerns for next season’s Trojan football. #1- seriously, how many 51 to 49 games does Helton want to experience or put pressure on his team to deal with? #2-Yes, players recruited away from SoCal will have more issues of loneliness & lifestyle change. But USC isn’t the only program that deals with it. All top programs deal with it too.The coaches have to be heads up for the signs of a player feeling apprehensive and deal with it, (#3) for Helton has to recruit as many top ability players on defense as he does offensively. It is the only way he is going to win championships, Darnold or no Darnold. We are just very lucky Sam is a Trojan. #4- This team’s turn-around success has given Helton & his coaching staff the opportunity to get in the front doors of better players now. They need to start knocking on those doors now.
Rumor has it SD is actually left handed but threw with his right just for giggles. You know how kids are – always joking around. He now will be taking things more seriously to win the NC. We should see a huge improvement.
What will this blog look like next year? Same as last year, year before that, year before that, year before that, year before that, year before that, year before that, year before that, …well, you get it.
When SC did have the pressure(like UDUB and Penn State) they preformed like champions. That Washington game was a pressure cooker and they dominated UDUB. The score was 26-13 but it should have been 26-6. UDUB got a break when Adoree fell down. We went into their house and pushed them around. But I would agree with Wolf that there will be pressure next year. Can this team handle that pressure? I hope so. Pete Carroll’s 2003 team was in the same situation and they handled it well. They won the national championship. Lane Kiffins 2012 team didn’t handle it very well at all. He was fired 5 games into the 2013 season. Can CH’s 2017 team handle that pressure? Again, I hope so.
I recommend that everyone listen to Dan Weber’s podcast this week on the PP – he picks apart Scottie’s argument here very deftly…