Did USC make the right changes to be relevant again?

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Josh Pate previews the Trojans' 2025 season and asks if Lincoln Riley's team has done what they need to do to compete in the Big Ten. Subscribe to 'Josh Pate's College Football Show' on YouTube.
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Video Transcript
The external vibes around USC are very different from the internal vibes.
The external vibes are that they suck.
Uh, Lincoln Riley is headed nowhere fast.
They've regressed three seasons in a row, record-wise.
Uh, that's true.
I can't defend that, nor do they try to defend it, but the internal vibe around there is that they already made the defensive changes they needed.
They believe they may have the best defensive staff in the country.
And if you argue with that, you at least have to grant they have one of the best in the country.
They believe they hired the right general manager, they believe they completely reworked their personnel department.
They believe help is on the way.
They believe the caliber of player that they have there will only get better.
Does that click this year?
Because last year they lost famously.
I think this is one of the most famous stats of the offseason.
They lost five Big Ten games they led in the 4th quarter.
That's hard to do in several years, much less one year.
So my question for them is, what are they really made of?
Like the first one, have they Big Ten-proofed themselves?
Because I watched them last year and they didn't play like a team.
Like an operation that was built to win in the Big Ten.
Which is bad because that's the conference they're in now.
Their offensive line couldn't close games.
You remember that.
I just read the stat to you.
They were eighth in rush yards per game.
This offensive line still feels like it's a work in progress.
And so if you're, if you're playing.
The teams you have to play again this year.
You know how they're built on the lines of scrimmage.
They may not have the most dynamic playmakers out wide like you do, but they can also put you in the dirt.
Can you do that to them?
Can you close out games?
That's the first thing.
The second thing, could they win a game defensively if they need to?
Now that's something we don't ask about Lincoln Riley teams very often, but you know what?
They've got the defensive staff and it's in its second full year now.
They got much better personnel there.
They went from 121st to 56th in scoring defense, uh, two years ago to last year.
But they were still 100th in sacks per game, so the havoc rate, the ability to affect the quarterback, that's got to get better.
They need better guys on the edge or better production on the edge, but if they're in a game early in the year and offense ain't clicking yet, could they win a game that's played in the low to mid-20s?
Historically, no, maybe things have changed.
Third thing.
What if?
It's just a bunch of one-possession games again.
'Cause the conventional wisdom out there is.
Well, we lost all those games last year.
We'll be on the plus side of those this year, but there's no guarantee that that's the case if the competitive character of your program is such that you don't know how to win games, that doesn't always change over the course of January through August, so something fundamental has to have changed.
It could be luck.
Luck could change, but you know there's some coaches you go and you look at them historically and their record in one- possession games is incredible.
Kirby Smart's one of them.
And then there are other coaches and there are other programs.
Even I think of Nebraska in recent history where they cannot get out of their own way in one-possession games.
That's because it's not totally randomized.
There is skill in knowing how to close out games and there's also a lot to be said for folks and teams who don't know how to close out games.
So USC couldn't do it last year.
Has something changed?
Those are the fundamental questions to me that have to be answered there.
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