College Football

Joel Klatt, Colin Cowherd on what's gone wrong for USC this season

Published Oct. 18, 2023 6:55 p.m. ET

USC's title chances took a major thud in Week 7.

The Trojans were dominated in their trip to South Bend, with reigning Heisman Trophy-winner Caleb Williams throwing three first-half interceptions as things unraveled for USC, losing 48-20 to Notre Dame. The loss makes it likely that USC, which was once among the favorites to win the national title, will need to win out to have a chance at making the College Football Playoff with a daunting Pac-12 slate ahead.

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As Lincoln Riley's second season in Los Angeles appears unlikely to have a Hollywood ending, FOX Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt shared a bit of a disagreement with Colin Cowherd on "The Herd" about why USC isn't living up to expectations in 2023. Cowherd believes that the Trojans just took in too many transfers this season, especially defensively, to be a true contender, saying USC doesn't "have a foundation to go with the transfers."

"USC, Colorado and a little bit of LSU — you're trying to microwave your program," Cowherd said, noting USC's 79th-ranked defense and 90th in scoring defense. "All I'm saying is, I was unrealistic [in my expectations]. USC has five starters on defense that are transfers. Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Michigan have a combined five starters on defense that are first-year transfers."

Klatt pushed back on that notion, noting that Oklahoma uses several transfer players on defense to help give it depth it didn't have last season.

"Sometimes, to use your analogy, you don't have two hours to cook dinner, enjoy a glass of white wine and talk about the BCS standings from 2013," Klatt said. "Sometimes, you're like, ‘I have three kids, we've got flag football in 37 seconds — microwave the pizza!' Sometimes, you have to use the microwave. Colorado, USC and LSU, to a certain extent, had flag football in 37 seconds and they needed to have their slice of pizza right now or there was no chance they were going to be competitive."

Klatt also disagreed with Cowherd about the defense being a problem for USC in its loss to Notre Dame. The Trojans gave up just 251 yards of total offense in that game, with Williams' three interceptions giving the Fighting Irish a short field to turn those turnovers into touchdowns before returning a kick for a touchdown, resulting in 28 total points for Notre Dame.

As Cowherd said that Notre Dame's offense is a "BB gun" compared to the Washington and Oregon offenses USC will face in the coming weeks, Klatt said that USC's offense has also been a "BB gun" because of its failure to protect Williams. Klatt cited that Williams has been pressured 58 times in the last four weeks, which is the fifth-worst mark in college football.

"They can't block anybody," Klatt said. "The problem with USC last week was their offensive line. If Lincoln doesn't get the run game going, this is a problem down the stretch. They face too many good and physical teams."

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Klatt thinks that a possible answer to fix USC's offensive woes is to rely more on running back MarShawn Lloyd, who has rushed for 565 yards and five touchdowns this season.

"I'll just point to one stat, and far be it from me to criticize his playcalling because I think [Riley] is one of the best playcallers in college football that I've ever seen, but MarShawn Lloyd is only getting 10 carries a game," Klatt said. "He's leading college football in yards per carry (7.5). If you go back to what Lincoln did really well at Oklahoma, when they run the ball, that's when they're at their best. They have air raid principles in their passing game, but it's not an air raid philosophy.

"So, they've got to run the ball better. [Lloyd] only ran the ball eight times against Notre Dame. I think he needs to run the ball 15-to-18 times against Utah this weekend."

While Utah ranks among the best in the nation in rushing yards per game (third) allowed rushing yards per carry allowed (fourth) this season, former USC running back Travis Dye had an efficient game in the regular-season matchup between the two teams last season, rushing for 76 yards on 6.9 yards per carry.