Trojans have to be 60-minute men in the Big 10
They couldn't handle the fundamentals at the big moments of their loss to Michigan
For two years and two months, USC has heard it on a daily basis. You can’t win in the Big 10 unless you block and tackle.
The Trojans quietly fumed over this implicit slap at the type of surf-and-turf football they’re known for. Hadn’t they heard about Charles White, LenDale White, Anthony Munoz, Tony Boselli, Ronnie Lott, Leonard Williams? Student Body Left? The Wild Bunch? Competition Tuesday?
So they saddled up their covered wagon full of nouveau-riche transfers, and a defense that had gotten blood and heart transfusions from new coordinator D’Anton Lynn, and arrived at Michigan Saturday, the showroom of Big Ten all-terrain vehicles. And they took the blows and delivered some, too. But somewhere along the line, they forgot to read the fine print of the original premise. It’s block and tackle. Not block OR tackle.
Whenever they forgot to protect quarterback Miller Moss, he was slammed into the flooring of the Big House. And whenever they forgot to fill the gaps on defense, they watched Michigan ballcarriers rapidly disappear.
In the end, Michigan had fourth down on the USC one. It trailed 24-20. It went into four-wheel drive. Max Bredeson, a former tight end, flattened USC’s Kamari Ramsey at the line of scrimmage. Kalel Mullings, a grad student who spent the first half of his Michigan career as an infrequently-used linebacker, barged into the end zone. Nominally, that’s why Michigan won, 27-24, but it was only the icing on a big pound cake. The Trojans flew home with the confidence they could compete, but what happens when the bruises take more than a week to disappear?
Michigan, which was frightfully outplayed in the third quarter and lost a 14-3 lead, completed only one pass on that final 89-yard drive. The essential play featured Mullings, on third-and-one, who appeared to be stopped after he got first-down yardage. But Ramsey and John Humphreys began the tackle without finishing it. Mullings stepped out of those arms and then streaked 63 yards, and a moribund crowd woke up to hope.
Mullings had a 53-yard run for a touchdown in the first quarter. Donovan Edwards got loose for a 41-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. Michigan got 157 of its 290 rushing yards on those three plays. That sometimes happens when you hand off 46 times, and the incessant chopping finally topples the tree.
On the other side Michigan had four sacks and eight tackles for loss, dribbling Moss’ head off the turf for most of the first half. He was hit 10 times, all told. But Moss came back for a splendid second half, with three touchdown passes, including the go-ahead 24-yarder to JaKobi Lane on third-and-16. Judging from last year’s Holiday Bowl performance against Nebraska and his comeback against LSU this season, Moss firmly belongs in Lincoln Riley’s platinum collection of quarterbacks. But in the Big 10, the Trojans will need more than 96 yards rushing. A run game would give Moss the type of time that he consistently turned into big plays on Saturday, on the rare occasions he got it.
The downer for USC is that it might never again play a Michigan team that’s so depleted and one-dimensional. The 2023 national champions had 13 players drafted by the NFL, seven in the first 100 picks, and also lost head coach Jim Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. Michigan was shoved around by Texas earlier this month. It came up empty at the quarterback counter of the transfer bazaar, and on Saturday they turned to Alex Orji, who completed seven passes for 32 yards. USC responded by overpopulating the line of scrimmage. It still couldn’t get the stops it had to have.
USC doesn’t have Ohio State on its schedule, but it does play Penn State and Nebraska at the Coliseum, along with Notre Dame, and travels to Washington. To get to the Big 10 championship game and win it, which would ensure a spot in the 12-team CFP, USC has to finish second. Otherwise the Trojans’ fate will be decided by a selection committee that apparently will have to accommodate half of the SEC.
Too early, of course, to worry about how the wheels fall into the slots. The Trojans at least reconfirmed Saturday that cliches are cliches because they carry proven truths, and that even though every game no longer counts, every word does.
More confetti:
— Utah 22, Oklahoma State 19: On a stifling afternoon in Stillwater, the Utes (4–0) showed the Big 12 why they’ve won the past two Rose Bowls. They held the Cowboys (3-1) under 300 yards, got 182 rush yards from Micah Bernard, serving his sixth year in Kyle Whittingham’s program. They also held the ball for more than 42 minutes, which made it easier to hold Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon to 42 yards rushing.
— Colorado 38, Baylor 31 (OT): All the peripheral static around the Colorado program shouldn’t obscure the authenticity of Shedeur Sanders. After Isaiah Hankins missed a 46-yard field goal that would have put Baylor ahead 34-24 with 2:16 left, Sanders threw a dart that bounced off Will Sheppard’s chest at the goal line. Not to worry. On the next play Sanders drifted to his left and found LaJohntay Wester for a shocking last=second 43-yard touchdown. The Buffaloes then won in overtime to rise to 3-1.
— Tennessee 25, Oklahoma 15: Oklahoma’s SEC debut showed its fans what they’re getting into, courtesy of Tennessee’s defense. The Vols came to Norman and held Oklahoma to 222 total yards and got three sacks, and ran QB Jackson Arnold out of the game in doing so. They also rubbed the Sooners’ defense into the turf with Dylan Sampson running 24 times for 92 yards, including eight consecutive carries on one TD drive. Oklahoma had minus-22 yards in the second quarter.
— James Madison 70, North Carolina 50: Losing to the Dukes is no disgrace, but Tar Heel coach Mack Brown was aghast when James Madison rolled up 53 points in the first half alone. Terrence Spence blocked a punt that turned into a touchdown, then returned an interception 33 yards for another one. Quarterback Alonza Burnett III, whose uncle Troy played at North Carolina and in the NFL, was sensational with two runs for TDs, five passing touchdowns, and 487 total yards. “I’ve hired everybody on this staff and signed every player on this team,” Brown said. “I am at fault 100 percent.”
— Navy 56, Memphis 44: The same Tigers who won at Florida State last week, 20-12, were deep-sixed by Navy’s Blake Horvath, who ran for 211 rushing yards and four touchdowns and also hit 32 of 56 passes for 371 yards. The Midshipmen (3–0) have modernized their offense with new coach Brian Newberry and have scored 143 points in three games, their most since 1918.
— Brigham Young 38, Kansas State 9: The Wildcats (3-1) were nursing a 9-3 lead and ruling the line of scrimmage in the second quarter. Then BYU struck for three touchdowns in a 3:07 span and never looked back. It got two interceptions from front-seven defenders, a 30-yard scoop-and-score from Tommy Prassas, and later got an epic 90-yard punt return from Parker Kingston, who picked up the bouncing ball on the dead run, veered dangerously close to his own goal line, and then got to the sideline and outran and outmaneuvered everyone. BYU did all this and gained only 241 yards, total. Yet the Cougars are 4-0.