Musings from Arledge: USC Football is Back

Let me be the first to extend my congratulations to the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner, Jaxson Dart. 

Over the last two years, I’ve said some not-so-nice things about Mike Bohn and, more generally, about the USC administration. 

I’m sorry, Mike. I’m sorry, and I love you.

If that sounds sappy, maybe even creepy, and very un-Musings-like, you need to know: this just doesn’t happen. Successful coaches don’t leave one blue-blood program for another. The closest comparisons are both moves to Texas A&M, strangely enough: Jimbo Fisher leaving FSU for Texas A&M and Dennis Franchione leaving Alabama for A&M. But things had gone south at FSU for Fisher, who was in open warfare with the administration, and Franchione was presumably running away from the serious NCAA sanctions that landed in his lap due to misconduct before he arrived. 

But this? I don’t think this has happened in modern college football. You’re talking about what are historically two of the top five programs in the country. (USC, OU, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Alabama are the top five. Michigan fans might quibble with this list, but they’d be wrong. They’re number six.) Has any coach left one of those top five programs to join another? And to do so when he’s still in his prime and winning? Never. It doesn’t happen. 

We were all fighting over Matt Campbell, Dave Aranda, and Luke Fickell – all good coaches. But Mike Bohn and Brandon Sosna were big-game hunting and preparing to deliver an 8.2-level seismic event on the college-football world. 

Simply put, those two guys have pulled off an historic coup, and I can’t give them enough credit. Just when we think they’re about to strike out and leave USC at the bottom of this pit of death and despair … they do this? Amazing. Mike Bohn for Governor. No, seriously. Let’s see if the guy can fix the state now.

What does this mean for USC? It means the Trojans will be back in contention, probably quickly. Riley is an unbelievable recruiter, an offensive genius, and a proven head coach. He runs a form of the Air Raid – I know – but it’s not the Air Raid we’ve come to loathe over the last few years. His Air Raid works, in the air and on the ground. Riley develops quarterbacks better than anybody, and his teams can run the ball. USC will attract the type of talent that Pete Carroll recruited, and that talent will be directed by one of the premier offensive wizards in the country. It will take more than two days to install his offense. And we may need to bring a back-up Traveler to home games. The current Traveler isn’t used to much running. I’d hate to see something happen to him.

For the current USC players who still have eligibility remaining: it’s time to get to work, guys. It’s time to step up the effort big-time. It’s time to play disciplined. If you do, you’ll be rewarded. You’ll be playing in the kind of games you wanted to play in when you came to USC. And if you’re not willing to sacrifice for that, you’ll be replaced. There’s a long line of talented people who now want to take your spot.

What does this mean for the rest of the Pac-12 conference? As Clubber Lang put it, “Pain.” Lincoln Riley will dominate this conference. This conference is a clown show, and everybody knows it. Oregon, you’re finished. For a decade, USC self-sanctioned and gave you the chance to accomplish whatever you’re able to accomplish. And you still couldn’t win anything of significance. The trail of SoCal high school players going to Oregon will dry up. Your glory days, such as they were, are over. Go sit down. UCLA, way to capitalize on the Clay Helton Debacle. We give you all that time and the best you can do is an 8-4 season? Nice job, guys. You’re also done. Sit down. As for the rest of you, this nonsense of conference foes coming into the Coliseum and having their way with the Trojans, it’s over. The big dog is back.

The harder question is whether Riley’s teams will play defense well enough to win a national title. That defensive coordinator hire will be huge. But just remember that it’s much easier to play defense when your offense is a juggernaut. You can take risks. I’d expect a very aggressive scheme that will give up some yards and big plays but will also attack. Because when your offense is explosive, you only need a couple of stops and turnovers to jump on somebody by three scores. 

Now let’s deal with the doubters. 

First, the doubters like me. USC has apparently not given up on football, though they certainly put on one heck of an impersonation for the last few years. Carol Folt is not intent on destroying the football program, even if she doesn’t know when the season ends. Mike Bohn is not a stooge who is precluded from building a program. The Board of Trustees is not full of amoral, billionaires who are more interested in their own … well, umm, forget that. Whatever. What we know is that Rick Caruso’s prediction of a world-class coach has proven correct. USC still cares about football, and that means all of us who have cared (probably too much) about USC football over the years can afford to re-invest. USC football has chosen not to die. Fill up those seats, people. Show’s about to get wild.

Second, let’s talk about those doubters who say USC can’t win any more – the demographics are bad, the fan support is bad, the administration doesn’t want to win, the West Coast is too soft and has too much kale, Global Warming has sapped our ability to run the football. Whatever. You know the excuses. We heard the same excuses before 2001. They’re not true. They never were. 

You can stick to the nonsense excuses for now if you want. Riley still has to prove it. But here’s the thing: Lincoln Riley is no dummy. He knows the college-football landscape better than any of us, he was well entrenched in a great job that paid him almost $8 million a year, and if he was unhappy at OU he could have left for LSU, or Florida, or the NFL or wherever else he wanted to go. But he chose USC. That tells you that somebody who knows a whole lot more about college football than you do says your excuses are nonsense, that you just don’t know what you’re talking about. And that’s good news. Don’t fight it. Embrace it. USC still can win, and it will.

There is nothing – nothing – more important to college football success than the head football coach. USC has made a string of almost-inexcusable hires – Hackett? Ridiculous. Kiffin? Desperate (and premature). Sark? Horrific. Helton? Geez. – punctuated with one very lucky hire. Now, for the first time in a very long time, maybe since Howard Jones, USC has made a home-run hire. And the program will be rewarded for it. USC will win under Lincoln Riley. Will they win like the program won under Pete Carroll? Time will tell. But the incompetence and ineptitude is over. USC football is back. 

It’s a great day to be a Trojan.