USC’s once-promising regular season — and potentially Caleb Williams’ career — ended with a major whimper Saturday afternoon.
The UCLA Bruins dominated the Trojans and were the better, more complete team across all four quarters and walked away with a 38-20 win inside the Coliseum. USC was a top-five team at one point this season. It was 6-0. As recently as a few weeks ago, it controlled its destiny in the Pac-12 title race.
Williams and the Trojans were trounced at home 38-20 by crosstown rival UCLA, dropping their record to 7-5 for the season.
USC opened its season during Week 0, so this was its regular season finale. The Trojans are bowl eligible, but it remains to be seen whether Williams — the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and potential No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft — will decide to play in the bowl game.
Saturday’s loss capped off what has been a brutal second half of the season for Lincoln Riley’s Trojans. USC started the season 6-0 before losing five of six games to close out the regular season. The only win during that stretch was a one-point victory over Cal. Other than that 50-49 victory in Berkeley, USC lost to Notre Dame, Utah, Washington, Oregon and UCLA.
Caleb Williams was sacked four times, including twice by projected first-round draft pick edge rusher Laiatu Latu. The Trojans also failed to establish the run game. USC (7-5, 5-4 Pac-12) finished with three total yards rushing, its lowest mark of the season.
Last season the Trojans were on the brink of reaching the College Football Playoff before ending the season with consecutive losses in the Pac-12 title game to Utah and the Cotton Bowl to Tulane. USC entered 2023 with even higher expectations in Year 2 of the Riley/Williams pairing in Southern California, but failed to meet those lofty goals.
Despite the disappointing end to the season, Riley says he and company know that the program has plenty of room to grow while striving for a highly-coveted national championship, one that USC has been starved of since 2004.
While USC’s regular season is now over, most of the other FBS teams have one week remaining in their regular seasons. For now, the Trojans await to see who their next opponent will be and where they will face them when bowl season rolls around.
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