USC Finds Much Needed Break from Drama with Opening Win over Arkansas State

For nearly four hours at the L.A. Coliseum late into the first Saturday night of the college football season, USC managed to do something the team has rarely done over the past few years.

Keep the drama to a minimum.

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There was no deflated football controversy. No athletic director stormed down from the press box. The only thing of note that the coaching staff seemed to do on the sidelines was flash a few rare smiles following a score.

If you dug deep – and you probably had to in an otherwise mundane 55-6 win over a solid Arkansas State team – the only item of note that bore a passing resemblance to a commotion was when cornerback/wide receiver/special teams ace Adoree Jackson was sidelined early in the 1st half with an abdominal strain.

Such is the state of affairs at USC when school administrators breathe a sigh of relief to hear the only item of note to come out of a game is the Trojans’ best suffering a minor injury. Perhaps it helped that the game was a late one (even by West Coast standards) on a jam-packed Saturday of college football or the fact that it was on a channel few people receive, but a quiet night involving the football team was certainly a welcome sight for many around the program.

Nowadays, such a low-key evening has been a rare one.

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been a trying few weeks around Troy. Most of that attention has centered around head coach Steve Sarkisian after he was caught uttering expletives and slurring his words at a pre-season booster function. The veteran coach said his mea culpas, delegated more responsibilities to his assistants, and even performed a few team-mandated up-downs.

Such a story rarely goes away and, being at a program like USC magnified things even more.

Saturday, therefore, marked a long-awaited change for Sarkisian and the team: headlines generated from the Trojans’ actions on the field in lieu of those off it.

The defense was sharp, if not quite in mid-season form. Youngsters like wide receiver Steven Mitchell were able to translate what they showed off in practice during a game and tailback Tre Madden firmly staked his claim to being the primary ball carrier. Dozens of talented freshmen got their first taste of college football and most did not look lost.

Not everything was a positive. It was surely concerning to the keen-eyed observers of USC to see quarterback Cody Kessler’s touch be off so much against a Sun Belt foe. The offensive line struggled against the Red Wolves but such things could be chalked up to opening game jitters.

Things will be refined further. More film will be watched. Mistakes will be corrected. USC will move on, fight on, and focus on next week’s opponent in Idaho and their Pac-12 opener against a reeling Stanford squad a week after that.

The Trojans enters Sunday 1-0 when a lot of others around the Pac-12 are not. Given what has transpired in the months and years around Los Angeles, flying under the radar while keeping a zero in the loss column is something to be thankful for.

if the action was lacking at the Coliseum sobeit. Boring may not suit many in this day and age of college football but after what USC has been through lately, boring is just what they want to see.

You can follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.