YAY Or NAY: USC Is Ready To Play B1G Man Football
The USC football team is one day away from working on their new practice field that was just installed helping them prepare for the season. However, the Trojans’ new practice field isn’t the only thing that will look different when fall camp opens.
USC’s national narrative is going to change in 2024.
YAY. —
Let the haters continue to hate! All spring and continuing into the summer USC and the fans have endured endless amounts of criticism. When someone says the Trojans stink on the defensive side of the ball, it’s an accurate statement. But when the criticism turns into the Trojans will never win with Lincoln Riley as the head coach because he hates defense morphs into unhinged rants from an over-the-hill bald sports shock jock who caters to the SEC, you’re catering to the extreme.
The truth lives somewhere in the middle. Riley wants to win and he’s going to prove it in year 3 at USC with a new defensive coordinator and staff of proven assistants in a system that works. The system D’Anton Lynn likes has worked for the Baltimore Ravens, and it’s been effective enough to win a national championship last year.
I’ve lost count of how many times I said, is that all Riley needs is a competent defense that compliments his prolific offenses. My words may have been heard. If not mine everyone else’s because It might have happened.–The narrative is beginning to shift.
On paper, it looks like the Trojans will have at least an average defense.
Size matters in football.
YAY. —
Football programs are graded on wins and losses. The same rule applies if you’re a strength and conditioning coordinator because if you’re winning in the weight room it shows up on the playing field.
Last December USC started transitioning away from what was comfortable.
Miller Moss took over the reins at quarterback, and D’Anton Lynn replaced Alex Grinch as defensive coordinator. However, Lincoln Riley’s Strength & Conditioning coordinator, Bennie Wylie was asked to stick around and develop bigger bodies. Coach Riley said it was “non-negotiable” USC needed to get bigger bodies upfront as they transition into the B1G Conference. Wylie’s first response to the USC Trojans Live Radio Show comment last December caught my attention when he said, “As long as everyone is on the same page, than it’s easy.”
Whether or not each coach was on the same page is water under the bridge. Wylie got the message, and he relayed the message to the team.
“Our guys just have to eat,” Wylie said. “In the world of where we were coming in, we could we say, ‘Well I want to be fast, I want to be light, I want to be lean.’ And that’s just not what we’re doing and where we’re going, so there’s no option. You have a ton of teams that are already in the Big Ten that are big and fast. So we can do the same thing. It’s not optional. It’s non-negotiable. You don’t get an opinion. You get to lift. You get to eat. And that’s it.”
The Trojans are a confident team.
YAY. —
Despite hearing that they are not big enough to play in the B1G Conference, USC’s football team is feeling pretty good about itself.
The Trojans are riding a 1-game win streak, there is a new defensive philosophy that is helping lay the foundation for the future, and that vision that the staff has been selling is showing tangible results. The offseason goals were met, and every player that was given a goal to reach met the challenge. That’s called winning and winning breeds confidence.
Eric Henderson knows what a confident player looks like. “There’s confidence now because they’ve seen themselves get better,” Henderson said. “Any time you can present a vision, and then you see the vision come to life, you naturally gain confidence from that.–That’s where the buy-in comes.”
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