Coming off a 21-17 win on the road against Nebraska, it feels as if the Trojans still haven’t reached their full potential. This weekend, the defense led them to victory, while in other weeks such as the 49-35 victory against Michigan State, the offense carried the load. The Trojans have yet to put together a complete effort on both sides of the ball.
After injuries to their two starting running backs, junior Waymond Jordan and senior Eli Sanders, redshirt freshman running back King Miller has become a star in the backfield with over 125 rushing yards in two of his last three games.
“Waymond always tries to help me out with gap schemes, and jump cuts,” Miller said. “And Eli, he’s a burner, he’s always trying to help me out.”
Although the run game has had major success, the passing unit had its worst game of the season with under 100 yards. This can be attributed to a few factors, whether it was the hostile environment or cold weather, but head coach Lincoln Riley wasn’t making any excuses.
“When you have an average culture, it’s poor me, and you make excuses, you find ways to not get it done,” Riley said. “When you have a championship culture that is really starting to learn how to win again, and starting to really expect to win again every time you play, you just find ways to overcome it. No matter what it is.”
Recently, superstar wideout Makai Lemon has been kept in check. In two straight games, he’s been held under five receptions including a season-low of two this past week.
“It’s just natural ebbs and flows in the game. It’s not abnormal that when a guy’s producing a lot that people may try to do a few things. But Lemon’s a good enough player, he’s going to still have a chance to impact the game,” Riley said.
The positive sign for this USC team is that even though they failed to establish their lethal passing offense, they still found a way to win. Junior quarterback Jayden Maiava had an off game, completing nine of 23 attempts for 93 yards, but he found his stride through the ground, rushing for a season-high of 62 yards as well as finding the endzone.
The Trojans have a short week as they host Northwestern this Friday, Nov. 7, at the Coliseum.