The Lost Season

Its official, USC's season just became a full-blown disaster. The team that many experts picked as number one before the start of the season has now lost four games, all within the PAC-12. The most excruciating loss came today, as the Trojans not only dropped one to their arch-rival UCLA, but they lost any hopes of playing in the PAC-12 title game and getting a chance to avenge their loss against Oregon or Stanford.

This is not what was supposed to happen. After last season, when many felt by the end of the year USC was  one of the top teams in the country the thought was Barkley would come back and they would win the title. When he confirmed that he would be returning, optimism soared for Trojans fans. As the season got closer and closer expectations and hype built up to unreasonable levels. A title seemed certain.

As it turns out, things were not that simple. The wheels began to fall off at Stanford. Teams saw that USC could be beaten by strong physical play. Things got worse at Arizona when mistakes and a defense that could not get stops cost them the game. Against Oregon, it was clear USC simply did not have the personnel to stop their explosive fast-pace offense and USC did not have enough firepower to keep up. Finally, the game today showed that these Trojans simply do not have the fight required to get through adversity.

A win versus Notre Dame would help salvage the season as they would beat a rival and a highly ranked team, but no matter what this season is a disappointment. Fans can only wonder how this season could have played out and how far their team could have gone had things been different.