Pac-12 Football: 5 Things USC Must Do to Reclaim Its Place Atop the Conference
All signs point toward USC football slowly working its way back to the top of the Pac-12 football mountain, but it won't simply happen unless the Trojans continue to make steps in the right direction.
Heading into 2015, the team will have a full complement of players at its disposal, which means better depth, better ability to weather injuries and even more talent at key positions.
But even before the NCAA sanctions hit, the Trojans were starting to slip off the ledge. From 2003-2005, this was the premier college football program in the country. From 2006-2008, it was an elite team that couldn't quite get over the hump. Think of those teams as similar to what Oregon has been in recent years.
Since 2009, however, more than a few pieces have been missing in the championship formula, and simply adding more players won't necessarily change that.
Here are five things the USC must do if it hopes to become a regular national championship contender once again and wreak havoc on an improved Pac-12 conference.
Prepare to Be the Hunted (Again)
1 of 5
Alabama football knows what it means to be the hunted. So does Florida State and Ohio State and Auburn. In the Pac-12, Oregon is the hunted, meaning the Ducks are the program everyone circles back in July, and Mark Helfrich and company take everyone's best shot. Stanford shared that role before losing five games this season.
Such was the case with USC for many years in the 2000s, but now the Trojans are simply a big game and nothing more. Beating USC doesn't equal national headlines, beating Oregon does. However, with the Trojans starting to get back on track and putting together the pieces of a real juggernaut, that's starting to change.
Regardless of how coach Steve Sarkisian's club finishes out the 2014 season, it'll probably be ranked in the Top 15 and maybe even the Top 10 at the start of next season. Assuming UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley goes pro (and he may well choose to stay another year), USC will be the prohibitive favorite in the Pac-12 South.
What that means is the Trojans will suddenly be the hunted once again, taking everyone's best shot week in and week out. Average quarterbacks will look like Tom Brady, and porous defenses will open up the game with the swagger of the 1985 Chicago Bears. Being the hunted means if a team manages to knock you off, their entire season is made. USC hasn't played this role in a few years, so it better be ready.
Beat UCLA
2 of 5
The easiest and most obvious answer for what USC must do to reclaim its spot atop the Pac-12 is beat its crosstown rival, UCLA.
When the Trojans were beating the Bruins in 2010 and 2011—with a 50-0 score in that second season, folks will be happy to remind you—it was significant only to fans of the two schools. Nationally, the scores had little to no impact as Oregon and Stanford were locked in the titanic struggle to become king of the conference.
The last two seasons have seen UCLA get the upper hand, and while the wins had a slightly greater ripple effect, they still didn't move the needle a whole lot. Now, with both teams seemingly on the edge of greatness, beating each other has to be priority No. 1. It starts this Saturday but won't ever stop as long as either team remains in the national picture.
Only one team can be a true national championship contender in the same town. Perhaps that will be proved wrong in the coming years, but only one team can win the division and likely make the College Football Playoff. It won't happen this year, but both the Bruins and Trojans could have several upcoming battles to determine prime placement in the postseason. If USC wants to be the USC of old, it has to beat UCLA, plain and simple.
Establish a Consistent Offensive Identity
3 of 5
Now that USC has the right players on offense to pretty much do whatever it wants, Coach Sarkisian must establish a consistent identity and end any and all experimentation on the matter.
Step one is finding a balance, as in 50-50 run/pass or whatever the case may be. We're certainly not going to sit here and advise Sark on what that balance should be, but the tools are in place for almost any ratio to have success.
On the ground game, a relatively young offensive line has led the way for running back Javorius Allen to scamper for 1,184 yards and eight touchdowns on the season. One can only assume the line is going to continue to get better, and while Allen may not be around to see the final product, the Trojans don't seem to have much trouble finding good backs.
Through the air, Cody Kessler may be having the greatest season ever by a USC quarterback, as crazy as that sentence may look. He's passed for nearly 3,000 yards with 29 touchdowns and just three picks. His efficiency is off the charts, and while go-to wideout Nelson Agholor should be playing on Sundays next season, young players like Juju Smith appear poised to take the mantle in the receiving department.
To reiterate the point being made, all the tools are there. But the offense has been held up at times due to messing with its identity or going back to the Lane Kiffin era of running the ball on 3rd-and-long at least two or three times a game. You're USC, and you have some of the best athletes in the world. It's time to pick a strategy that works and stick to it.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Maintain Hunger in Recruiting
4 of 5
It's hard to imagine many programs being dealt the kind of sanctions handed down to USC by the NCAA and coming out the other side as a Top 25 program loaded with young talent. Give plenty of credit to players like Matt Barkley and Leonard Williams for sticking it out, but the biggest reason the Trojans are still in a good place is recruiting.
In 2011, just before USC was restricted to signing a full class, the Trojans finished third in recruiting. The next three years saw USC ranked ninth, 12th and 10th, respectively, despite always signing fewer recruits than every single team ranked ahead of it. The 2013 class was particularly special as it totaled just 12 players, including Su'a Cravens and Kenny Bigelow. Every program ranked ahead of USC in the 247sports class rankings signed at least 22 players that season.
You could make an argument that even with the many great classes from 2002-2008, it was the most important stretch of recruiting in program history. How many others could take on a bowl ban and significant loss of scholarships and even scrape out a top-30 class?
But before we ramble on too much further without getting to the point, USC must remember the kind of hunger it had in recruiting during those years. Kiffin and now Sarkisian set their sights on the very best and delivered, and there may be a tendency to relax a bit with extra scholarships to offer. But if the coaching staff can continue to attack recruiting as it has in the past few seasons, the Trojans will be the most talented team west of the Mississippi (if they aren't already).
Keep an Emphasis on the Trenches
5 of 5
Winning football games starts in the trenches, which is a part of the team coaches must always keep an emphasis on, especially at USC. Sarkisian may not want to create the exact same teams from 10 years ago or use the same formula, but his own version must be similar in one respect: dominance up front.
The best USC teams had the top offensive and defensive lines in the conference without question, despite both units receiving few highlights on television and little to no fanfare.
The reason Sark and his staff must keep an emphasis on the trenches is because the skill-position athletes flock to USC seemingly on their own. The Trojans will always have top-flight quarterbacks, a deep stable of receivers and running backs and a secondary that has more combined stars than the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
But that formula without equally impressive lines does not work. On offense, nothing works without the offensive line, period. You won't have time to pass without blocking and running backs, no matter how talented they are, will have nowhere to go without lanes being opened up. On defense, everything begins to click as soon as the opposing quarterback has less time to make things happen.
If USC can put an emphasis on the trenches and let the skill position players continue to do their thing as they probably will until the end of time, the Trojans should have the right recipe to reclaim their place atop the Pac-12.
All stats via cfbstats.com. All recruiting information via 247sports.com.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
