Why USC Football Could GO CRAZY in 2024 (Trojans Preview)

Intro going into the 2024 college football season the USC Trojans are going to see a lot of changes not only did they lose their number one overall pick and Caleb Williams but they will now be playing against big 10 schools no longer will they be playing teams from the west coast and things are going to be a little bit different for USC this year expectations are pretty high for Lincoln Riley as so far the head coaching move hasn't really paid off the Trojans haven't got into the playoff and last year was pretty disappointing going into 2024 though many are wondering how USC is going to do they're going to have a new quarterback in Miller Moss they're going to have a new set of wide receivers and hopefully with some Personnel changes they should be able to break through and maybe make it to the playoff in today's video I'm going to preview the 2024 Trojans go through the roster the story lines talk about last year and how I ultimately think they are going to do but before we get started if you're a big fan of college football be sure to subscribe to the channel leave a like if you to support today's video and let me know what player team topic or situation I can cover next now let's get started preview the 2024 USC Trojans so Last Year going into last year USC returned Caleb Williams who many expected to be a superstar he still was pretty good but was also very underwhelming they brought in two transfers in Marshon Lloyd and Austin Jones at running back grabbed one of the top receivers in the country and Dorian singer from Arizona and then return guys like Taj Washington Brendan rice and Mario Williams they also had a superstar freshman and Zachariah Branch plus a guy by the name of dece Robinson who some were excited for going into the 2023 season season USC was expected to make a playoff run and things started out good they ended up beating San Jose State in week 0 56 to 28 and Zachariah Brandt showed to the world how good he was their second game would come against Nevada and they'd win that game 66 to4 the offense was once again on full display against Stanford as they then won 56 to10 in week four they then play against Arizona State on the road and that game was a little bit closer than the experts predicted USC had only won by two touchdowns and Arizona state was by no means a good team after that they go on the road to play against Colorado and this was honestly one of the games of September to me after being up by a lot Colorado actually made an incredible comeback and made it close but USC pulled through with a 48 to 41 Victory and got to 5 and0 after that they would return home to play against Arizona who at the time was just three and three there was no reason to expect the wild cats to be good but Noah fita in his second career start almost took down the Trojans the game ended up going to three overtimes but luckily USC pulled through in 143 to4 won Arizona ended up being really good but from there USC would hit hard times their luck would run out against the Irish as going on the road to play against number 21 Notre Dame they get blown out 48 to 20 and Caleb Williams was exposed many people thought he was a fraud and then after that it didn't get any better as they then lost by two points number 14 Utah USC's playoff hopes were now done and Midway through October they were left scrambling after that they'd almost lose the Cal as they' only beat the Bears on the road by one point and then they' lose their next three games they lost to Washington 52 to 42 lost by nine points to number six Oregon and then dropped a game at home to UCLA by two scores honestly I can excuse the Washington and Oregon losses cuz both of those teams were Elite but the UCLA one was unacceptable USC had lost five of their last six games and very well could have lost eight in a row the Colorado Arizona and Cal games could have easily been losses and what's interesting is right when Caleb Williams was done USC actually performed better against number 15 Louisville in the holiday Miller Moss would put up six touchdowns and they would win 42 to 28 honestly I always thought Louisville was pretty overrated but what was weird was UCLA kind of reset and got better in total Caleb Williams still had a good year as he threw for 3600 yards with 30 touchdowns and five picks Miller Moss came off the bench and threw seven scores and then in the running game Marshon Lloyd led the way as he ran for 820 yards and nine touchdowns Austin Jones also had seven more scores and Caleb Williams had 11 at the receiver spot Taj Washington led the way with 59 catches for 1,000 yards and eight scores and he ended up going to the NFL Brandon rice ended up catching 45 passes for 791 yards and a team High 12 scores and then both Duce Robinson and Zachariah Branch had a little bit over 300 yards and two touchdowns a piece Mario Williams and Dorian singer were both pretty disappointing and then both Kiren Hudson and Michael Jackson the third also caught a decent amount of passes true freshman maai lemon had a couple of moments and he should be expected to have a bigger year in 2024 in terms terms of the defense linebacker Mason Cobb led the way with 85 tackles defensive end Jamal Muhammad led the way with 6 and 1 half sacks Corner chrisan Roland Wallace led the way with nine pass deflections and then both him and kayin Bock had two interceptions a piece in terms of the 2024 NFL draft USC would send seven players off to the NFL Caleb Williams went with the first overall pick to the Bears kin Bullock went in the third round of the Texans running back Marshon Lloyd went in the third round to the Packers offensive guard jiren Kingston went in the sixth round to the 9ers and then they had three seventh round picks in Brendan rice Taj Washington and Solomon bird that was a pretty solid sendoff for USC and how do they plan to replace these guys well in terms of their recruiting class it would rank number 20 in the country as it was headlined by Jason xanda an interior offensive lineman four-star Edge rusher caman Fountain and then four-star receiver Xavier Jordan in terms of the transfer portal Hall USC was kind of underwhelming as it finished at number 19 in the country but they still got a decent amount of good weapons as they got three star receiver from San Jose State Charles Ross Gavin Meyer defensive lineman from Wyoming Kyle Ford a former big-time recruit from UCLA quarterback Jaden mava from UNLV and then a couple of four-star transfers in Kamari Ramsey a safety from UCLA Woody marks a running back from Mississippi State and then Eon Arnold from Oregon State and Nate Clifton from Vanderbilt obviously there's a couple more guys that I missed but in total the transfer portal Hall looks decent they brought in a couple of wide receivers that hopefully able to make some plays and then filled some gaps on offense and defense but what Roster does their roster look like now so in terms of the depth chart at quarterback here to bring back Miller Moss who had six touchdowns in their Holiday Bowl game and is receiving a ton of preseason hype he was obviously a blue chip recruit at one point but while he is really talented he still is unproven but I think Miller Moss is going to start out pretty slow and then eventually take over by the end of the year behind him you'll have Jaden Maya who is apparently still fighting for that starting job but more than likely is going to be the backup after that you have Jake Jensen and I'm not really sure why they didn't bring in a blue chip recruit this year but the quarterback position does seem okay at the running back position you're going to have four guys battling for playing time but Woody Marx will be the starter as he is more than 3,000 yards in his four years from Mississippi State and is by far the most experienced you have Quinton Joiner am Marion Peterson and Brian Jackson as well and I kind of wish they still had relique Brown at receiver there's a ton of players to watch out for here the starters are going to be Zachariah Branch jacobe Lane Makai lemon Kiren Hudson and dece Robinson a lot of these guys were extremely highly recruited and Zachariah Brandt should become a Bonafide Superstar this year he is out of this world potential and now that he'll be the feature guy I think he's going to explode I've also always been really excited to see what maai lemon can do and the other guys are also proven they also have a couple of those transfers who could surprise like Jay fair Kyle Ford and Jade Richardson and then Xavier Jordan's also someone I'm excited to watch overall I really like their receiver core and I don't think the skill players are going to be a problem for them at tight end you're going to have Lake McCree and then like six other guys fighting for playing time the only issue with McCree is that he is battling an injury but luckily they'll have an offensive line that seems to be in a decent spot the starter should be Elijah page Emanuel pregnan Jonah Manheim elani Noah and Mason Murphy on the defensive side of the ball things do look pretty good but the defensive line is going to be a little bit of an issue the starters on the defensive line should be Anthony Lucas Nate Clifton bear Alexander and jam Muhammad and Lincoln rley has admitted he needs help there they didn't do that much to address the need but hopefully someone will step up at linebacker you're going to bring back Easton masarus Arnold who was the first team all Pack 12 player last year and then after that guys like Mason Cobb Eric Gentry and raay John Davis should also get an opportunity to compete and play I'm also excited to see what Desmond Stevens II or Elijah newbie could do and then at the Nickels spot the starter should be Jaylen Smith but greedy Vance Jr and profit Brown will also push him at safety the starters should be Kamari Ramsey and achil Arnold but guys such as Zion Branch Anthony beavers Jr and Bryson Shaw will also be battling for playing time finally at the corner position you're going to have jacobe Covington John Humphrey and D Carlos Nicholson with marcelus Williams and Maliki Crawford also voting for playing time again I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the USC defense but it looks like things are probably all right besides the defensive line and they will need to improve because defense has not exactly been their strongest over the last few years and the Big 10 is a little bit of a different animal speaking of a different animal how are they going to do this year well in week one they play one of the most high-profile matchups against LSU what's really interesting is it's going to be two quarterbacks who both perform well in their Bull games Garrett NM looked really good in their bowl game against Wisconsin and Moss looked great against Louisville it'll be a battle of these two teams and honestly USC fans are going to hate me but I think LSU wins this game by two scores I know LSU is very unproven but I just think that's how it's going to go in week two they're going to play against Utah State and they're in an interesting spot with their coaching situation so they should probably blow them out easily after that they have a really difficult game as they're going to go on the road to play against Michigan while Michigan has to replace their top receiver top running back and top quarterback and has a new head coach the Wolverines I don't think are going to drop off that much and playing in the big house is going to be a difficult challenge for Miller Moss unfortunately I think they're going to end up getting exposed and this will be USC's second loss of the year it's not exactly a great start for USC but after that I think they're going to come home and get their first big victory against Wisconsin obviously the Badgers have a decent amount of hype this year too but there's no way USC starts out 1 and three and I think they're going to beat Wisconsin pretty easily and then they're also going to go on the road and dominate Minnesota and get themselves back to a 3 and2 record after that they're going to play against Penn State and while this could be an intriguing upset pick I think Penn State's going to be able to get him and they're going to lose a close one at home so at this point USC is 3 and three and you're probably all mad at me but as I said earlier in the video I think Miller Moss figures it out as the schedule gets a little bit easier and USC actually could get really hot at the end of the year first they play on the road against Maryland who right now doesn't have a quarterback and lost a lot of their talent so I think USC wins that game pretty easily they then have ruter who I'm not exactly that excited for or I don't think is a juggernaut and after those two wins they have a somewhat tricky game on the road against Washington if this was last year I would probably pick USC to lose but Washington lost pretty much everything they lost their top three receivers lost their highman level quarterback their top two running backs their best tight ends and half their defense plus I forgot to mention they lost their head coach Washington is not going to be the same team and despite how good of a coach Jed fish is Washington is not going to be that competitive in 2024 and USC will get their third straight win after that they're going to come home and play against Nebraska and while this could be an intriguing game especially if Dylan Rola plays better than advertised I think USC will beat them pretty handily and that'll get them to their fourth straight win after that they're going to go on the road to play against UCLA and UCLA is in a firste head coaching situation as well I don't have a ton of faith in Ethan garbers and they lost a lot of their key players and then add of the fact that they're embarrassed by what happened last year USC wins that and that gets them to five straight to end the season they're going to play against Notre Dame and this is an intriguing matchup Notre Dame will have a new quarterback and Riley Leonard and the Irish are guaranteed to win anywhere between 9 and 11 games so this game will be competitive and it is a rivalry I still don't have that much faith in Notre Dame though and with it being at home and how last year's game went I think USC is going to win by at least a touchdown that'll get USC to a 9 and3 record after a three and3 start start I think they're going to win six straight games and well it won't be enough to get them into the playoff they'll still play in a decent bowl and more importantly they'll have a ton of momentum going into 2025 in which we'll have a Miller Moss Zachariah Branch Duo if I had to put money on it I think Miller Moss gets a lot better towards the end of the year Zachariah Branch becomes a superstar and Woody Marx becomes one of the top backs in the Big 10 the defense will have to sorts some things out but to me the five most important games on the schedule are going to be the LSU Michigan Penn State a Notre Dame game I think USC will go 1 and three in that stretch but there is a chance that they could go 2 and2 the most likely scenario is that they beat LSU as I really don't think they're going to beat Penn State or Michigan but for now I have USC going at 9 and three maybe some of you guys will disagree with me but playing three potential top 10 teams in your first six games is going to be tough when you're breaking in a ton of new players and a new defense we'll have to wait and see though but what do you guys think if you're a USC fan what did they get right and wrong how do you think the Trojans will do in 2023 and what program should I cover next be sure to let me know down below leave a like if you're to support today's video subscribe if you're new and check out all other videos on the end screen I hope to see you guys again soon but until next time peace