Joel Klatt analyzes USC's current trajectory as a program

Joel Klatt and Colin Cowherd have often disagreed on where things stand at USC. Now, with a big-time, important matchup for the Trojans this weekend in Lincoln, one of them may get to be right about Southern Cal.

Klatt disagreed with Cowherd again on what USC is, this season and moving forward under Lincoln Riley, while on ‘The Herd’ on Wednesday. He thinks this game of No. 23 USC vs. Nebraska is an opportunity for one to prove the other wrong about this dispute.

“That’s just, that’s so surface. That’s so surface,” Klatt said in response to Cowherd’s take. “This is a great litmus test of, I guess, our positions on this.”

Klatt’s point was based on the style in which the Trojans are playing. That is namely offensively, which is far more sustainable out in Los Angeles.

USC is averaging 42.4 points per game this season, which is right on pace for a team coached by Riley, but this attack, in posting 326.1 yards in the pass game and another 203.9 in the run game, is the most balanced it has been in his tenure there. That, to Klatt, makes the Trojans’ product far more legitimate on a week-in, week-out basis, which is proven so far through the 5-2 start for ‘SC.

“You talked about, like, the offense being clever and creative. That’s because they had to be, because they weren’t balanced. Now they’re balanced, and against the teams that they can retain that balance against, they’re very good,” Klatt explained. “Now, was Illinois a good matchup for them? No. Notre Dame? No. And that’s why they need to continue to get better. I believe they’re on the trajectory towards getting better in those areas to be better at the line of scrimmage. But, but, what’s different now is that they will and are committed to running the football, and they should be able to run it against Nebraska. Nebraska is ranked fifteenth in the Big Ten in stopping the run. And, if you allow Lincoln Riley and Jayden Maiava to have a run game, they will pick you apart. This is why it’s different now, and it’s much more sustainable.”

For him to be right, USC is going to have to take that on the road on Saturday and win over the Cornhuskers, which would keep them in some contention, as a one-loss team in conference and only a two-loss team overall, for the CFP. Klatt thinks they can, though, in what could be a key win for the Trojans.