USC vs. Utah takeaways: Lincoln Riley, Trojans feeling the heat

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Caleb Williams started the season with dreams of achieving the “immortality” attained only by winning championships. After a 34-32 loss to Utah on Saturday at the Coliseum, the Heisman-winning quarterback sat on the bench, interlaced his fingers and covered his eyes as Utah players flooded onto the field.

USC’s College Football Playoff semifinals hopes are gone. No two-loss team has ever made the four-team tournament since it began in 2014.

The No. 18 Trojans (6-2, 4-1 Pac-12) are alive in the Pac-12 championship race, although the remaining slate that includes back-to-back games against No. 5 Washington and at No. 8 Oregon seems insurmountable for a team battered from two consecutive losses.

“We’re kind of in one of those tough stretches that you gotta go dig yourself out of,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said. “This is when you get tested as a program. This is when you get tested as a coach and a leader.”

Here are three takeaways from USC’s fourth consecutive loss to Utah and the third under Riley:

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Feeling the heat

Riley got the Trojans one win and one hamstring injury to Williams away from the playoff semifinals last year. With Williams returning, expectations only grew. Riley’s response to the rising profile was distancing his program from outside forces, hoping it could diminish distractions.

He created national headlines while attempting to suspend a beat reporter’s access the week of USC’s first road game against Arizona State. He said to “the trained eye” this season’s struggling USC defense doesn’t resemble last year’s unit even if the missed tackles and long gains surrendered look similar. Media viewing periods, already no longer than 20 minutes of just stretching and individual drills, shrank to less than five minutes in the week leading up the Utah game.

Despite his efforts, Riley admitted Saturday after the first home loss of his USC career it was “fair to say [expectations] got to this team.”

“Everybody expects that you can have a championship-caliber team,” Riley said. “And when you’re constantly trying to live up to those expectations, you can kinda fall away from maybe what put you there in that position in the first place. And you can let disappointment of not playing perfect, or you know, when you won by 20 and you didn’t win by 40, and all the outside noise that comes with that, like, it can get to you.”

Now effectively eliminated from national championship contention, Riley tried to downplay any preseason playoff expectations as a “dream world.”

“I don’t know where that narrative starts,” he said.

In fact, the coach started it. He told reporters at Pac-12 media day in 2022 that the coaching staff “came here competitively to win championships, win them now and to win them for a long time.”

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Turnover battle

USC needed points. Unexpectedly, the defense delivered.

Calen Bullock’s 30-yard pick-six in the fourth quarter sparked the Trojans’ late surge as the teamsnapped out of a prolonged scoring rut. For a defense that thrived on turnovers last year, the sight of a defensive back returning an interception has been too rare this season.

After a plus-22 turnover margin last year, which included 29 takeaways, the Trojans are minus-1 in the turnover battle this season. They’ve lost six fumbles and thrown four interceptions to four fumbles recovered and five passes intercepted. Their 10 turnovers in eight games this season, which included a lost fumble by running back MarShawn Lloyd in the third quarter Saturday and three interceptions by Williams against Notre Dame, has already eclipsed last year’s 13-game total of seven.

“We’ve been such a good hang on to the ball offense and a turnover team defensively and obviously had a big one there at the end, but last few weeks, obviously that’s plagued us,” Riley said, “and against two of the better defenses in the country here the last two weeks, that’s the margin for error, right?”

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Running woes

Utah entered Saturday’s game as the best rushing defense in the country, allowing just 66.8 yards on the ground per game. USC surpassed that number in the first quarter.

The Trojans ran for 100 yards on 10 carries in the first quarter, pacing USC to a 14-14 tie on the scoreboard, but finished with just 145 rushing yards on 23 attempts as Riley moved away from a run game.

Behind a tweaked offensive line that moved Jarrett Kingston from right guard to right tackle, added Mason Murphy at right guard and benched former starter Michael Tarquin, the Trojans gained 6.3 yards per carry, their most efficient rushing performance since beating Arizona State on Sept. 23.

MarShawn Lloyd rushed for 74 yards on five touches in the first quarter, including a 45-yard touchdown, but didn’t get another carry after fumbling midway through the third quarter. He finished with 86 yards on seven carries.

Austin Jones had 31 yards on five carries, including three carries on one drive in the fourth quarter. He moved the Trojans to the Utah 8-yard line before an 11-yard sack on third down forced USC to settle for a 36-yard field goal on fourth-and-15.

“When I’ve been asked about play-calling my career, that’s — hindsight always tells the story,” Riley said when asked about de-emphasizing the running game.

“I’ve had, I think, an OK track record in calling plays,” he continued when asked about ways he wants to progress as a play caller. “Confident in my ability and our ability to do that, but we’ve got to be better for each other. That’s called football. You’re all in it together. I’ll never sit up here and say, I did it all right and guys made the mistakes. We’re all in it together. Our success is tied together. Our failures are tied together.”

Riley sat on the dais after the game by himself. USC did not make any players or other coaches available to reporters after the game.