The USC Trojans defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 38-27 in the season finale this past Saturday. They are now headed to Las Vegas this Friday where they will play the Utah Utes for the Pac-12 championship.
It was a party at the Coliseum Saturday night. Over 70,000 fans packed the stadium jumping up and down and cheering as USC finishes the season 11-1. This is a complete 180 after finishing 4-8 a year ago.
Many attribute USC’s success this year to head coach Lincoln Riley who was hired last fall after the season. One of these people is USC accounting sophomore Alex Mainville. He gives his reactions on what Riley has accomplished this year.
ALEX MAINVILLE: I didn’t expect him to turn the program around so quickly. I thought it was going to be something that would take like three or four years, maybe by the time I was a senior, but obviously I took just one season.
Riley had great success in Oklahoma with an overall record of 55-10 before coming to USC. Director of Annenberg’s Institute of Sports media and Society Daniel Durbin explains how Riley was able to continue his success.
DANIEL DURBIN: You could see him turning around the team and potentially getting it in the top ten. Getting it into the top four might be a bit of a surprise, especially given the the continued prejudice against Pac-12 teams. But it’s not surprising that he was able to to put together a much better team. I mean, the big tipoff that he was going to be able to do so was the fact that he was able to bring over so many players from Oklahoma. And the portal helped him immensely in that he was essentially able to pick and choose the best players from USC and the best players from Oklahoma and put them together and create kind of a hybrid team.
The turnaround has brought a lot of excitement back to football. Here is Mainville again on what this year has meant.
MAINVILLE: The experience was very good this year because I remember last year people were showing up to the games and then kind of just leaving after like a quarter or two, especially once USC started losing a lot. Nobody wanted to go to the games, and it was boring and it sucked. And then this year they’re winning like every single game and it’s very fun. And I’m even staying ‘til the end of the fourth quarter for a lot of these games, so I think it’s a lot better than it was last year.
For the first time in five years, USC has made it back in to the top 10 in AP rankings being placed at number four. Students now have more to celebrate and look forward to with the success. Neuroscience sophomore Abel Santa feels the hype for this team and has been enticed to go to the Pac-12 championship in Las Vegas.
ABEL SANTA: I will go with with with my friend group. And we were thinking about connecting it with a road trip. So we will probably drive there, and I’m not sure how we will get the tickets. I think the other guys, we’ll figure it out.
Professor Durbin agrees that the future for USC is bright as the Trojans get ready to move to the Big10.
DURBIN: The good news is, is that, number one, we will have what will be perceived as a higher level of competition and a better level of competition. So it’ll make it easier. Should USC be successful, it’ll make it easier to get higher rankings for the championship. Number two, the games will be much more visible.
What’s more is that Ohio State and LSU, two teams ranked higher than USC both lost Saturday potentially allowing U-S-C to get in the college football playoffs. We will have to wait for the CFP rankings which come out tomorrow at 4 p.m.
For Annenberg Media I’m Eric Yeh.