I wanted to think of some catchy opening line related to Hollywood and Los Angeles, but I think I’ll just get to the point: USC is not very good, and it shouldn’t just take looking at the Trojan’s 34-30 last-second win in Tucson on Saturday to show you that.

We’ve been watching the same movie about USC for the last three years since Sam Darnold left, they just look mediocre. That should be unacceptable for a brand on the same tier as Alabama, Notre Dame, and Ohio State, yet it has become a reality.

Against Arizona State, the Trojans were outplayed for 56 minutes and trailed by two touchdowns with four minutes left, and managed to pull out a victory. Against Arizona, the Trojans scored the go-ahead touchdowns with just 25 seconds left. Late-game heroics somehow leave this team at 2-0.

One concern has to be Kedon Slovis himself, he just doesn’t look right. If you sat down and watched all of his throws Saturday, something was off. He was late and wobbly on a lot of his throws. The high volume makes his numbers look a little more respectable, but it just doesn’t look like the freshman QB we saw take the conference by storm last year. Maybe he’s hurt? We don’t know.

Penalties have been a consistent problem in the Helton Era, which should be frustrating because it’s all about discipline, yet there’s none of it. Another 11 penalties for over 100 yards in the win on Saturday. You can get away with penalties when you are significantly more talented than your opponent, but that hasn’t been the case for Helton’s recent USC teams.

The uncertainty around Helton’s job security has crushed the Trojans on the recruiting trail. USC had the worst-ranked class in the Pac-12 in 2020, worse than OSU and WSU, something I didn’t think was possible. 

That bad year on the recruiting trail allowed the two top-ranked quarterbacks in the 2020 class (DJ Uiagalelei and Bryce Young) to sneak out from under their nose and head to play college football in the south. It should have been a slam dunk for Southern Cal to snag one of the two QBs, instead, the Trojans got nothing.

USC slots at 8th nationally in the 2021 recruiting rankings for the time being if the coaching staff stays intact, the one-year blip seems to have passed. 

The Trojans just don’t look like they should be a conference favorite. They’ve already beaten the most talented team on their schedule (ASU) and will be favored in every game they play until the conference title (if they make it), but it just seems like a mirage. They are two failed drives away from being 0-2 and the coaching rumors swirling.

USC has seen that rumors are bad for branding and recruiting, and it seems that as long as Helton stays, so do the rumors. The school is in a tough spot. They had to hire a new president last year, was embattled in numerous lawsuits along the way, and now has to deal with the subsequent COVID-19 economic fallout, which will cost athletic departments tens of millions of dollars. That, along with Helton’s reported buyout of $20 million, makes his firing, not an option.

I hope the Trojans and Helton turn it around, west coast football lives and dies with USC. The Pac-12’s national relevance is directly tied with the Trojans. Both have been down for the last couple of years, and it only comes back with improvement in Los Angeles. 

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-By: TJ Mathewson