After years of uncharacteristic mediocrity, USC’s famed football program is flying high again, and students say they can feel the welcome change.
The Trojans are set to face off in the PAC-12 Championship game Friday against Utah, who gave USC their lone loss on the season.
A win in Friday’s showdown would likely propel USC into the College Football Playoff. After beating longtime rival Notre Dame last weekend, the team is ranked fourth in the latest weekly rankings with an 11-1 record.
For students, the football team’s resurgence has brought excitement and pride back to the school.
“I think it’s pretty awesome,” sophomore Yasmin Valiente said. “It is a very cool feeling to know that you go to a school that’s really good and doing very well.”
Following a disappointing 4-8 season last year, USC fired head coach Clay Helton and hired former Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley last November.
Freshman Jack Clark credits Riley’s hiring for the team’s success this season.
“It’s a good turnaround from last year,” Clark said. “It’s great to see a new coach bring a new program to life.”
Riley has been able to rebuild the program through the transfer portal. USC received 20 transfers before this season, which ranked first in the country according to 247Sports.
Sportswriter Dennis Dodd called USC’s success in the transfer portal this year “the greatest transfer class in history.”
Dorian Edwards, who is also a transfer student, said the new crop of transfers were the not-so-secret ingredient to the team’s fast success.
“I’m not surprised because I kind of saw a lot of the transfers and I knew about a lot of the players coming here,” Edwards said. “So I kind of expected a lot from USC.”
Among those transfers, sophomore Caleb Williams stands out as the premier player in college football. Williams, who transferred from Oklahoma and already spent one year in Riley’s system, is currently the overwhelming favorite to win the Heisman trophy, awarded to the most outstanding player in college football.
Williams has thrown for 34 touchdowns and 3,712 yards while also rushing for 10 touchdowns. His current odds to win the award is -2500 at MGM Sportsbook.
Williams has orchestrated an electric offense, which students said has brought renewed excitement to fans in the Coliseum.
“I think having the Heisman front runner is big because I mean, it’s just exciting to watch,” said sophomore Eric Sheng.
Students said the team’s success has reignited school spirit as more Trojans are stepping up to demonstrate their support during this magical season.
“I’ve gone to every home football game so far,” Clark said. “Just being there for the team is a big support factor.”
USC started the season 6-0, defeating Rice, Stanford, Fresno State, Oregon State and Arizona State before suffering their first loss against Utah in Salt Lake City.
Still, students said they were quick to see the team’s potential after getting off to a blistering start to the season.
“I think once people realized that we could get there, like people started talking about it more and just the conversations were going around,” Sheng said.
After the Salt Lake setback, the Trojans quickly bounced back from the loss by winning their next five games. That streak included monumental wins over rivals UCLA 48-45 and Notre Dame 38-27 the past two weeks.
Junior Hannah Abualhaj believes that back-to-back wins against UCLA and Notre Dame have brought immense pride and passion to the atmosphere on campus.
“I do think that the win against Notre Dame and UCLA has added that little extra bit of pep in everyone,” she said.
Utah, the 12th ranked team in the country, scored the go-ahead touchdown in the final minute of the game in a 43-42 battle to hand USC its only loss of the year. Abualhaj did warn that the team must not let the past two weeks get to the team’s head.
“We could lose if we let it get to our head,” Abualhaj said. “We need to stay humble. We need to stay focused.”
The game is scheduled for Friday December 2 at 5 p.m. at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and will be televised on FOX. ESPN gives the Trojans a 61.2% chance of winning, and they are favored to win by 2.5 points.