The aftermath of the Cotton Bowl was undeniably tough for USC and its fans. Who wouldn’t be upset when a crew blows a 15-point result in Tulane within the last 4 and a half minutes? Of course the loss stung. It’s a New Year’s Six bowl recreation USC didn’t win, when it frankly ought to have closed the deal.
Predictably, Oklahoma fans reveled in USC’s late collapse. There’s nothing improper with that. All’s honest in love, struggle, and soccer video games.
Yet, there was one unusual factor to the Oklahoma fan response to the Cotton Bowl (additionally to the Pac-12 Championship Game loss to Utah). A selected mantra which flowed from some OU fans as a part of the Cotton Bowl aftermath was the bigger concept that “We told you about Lincoln Riley! We warned you this was going to happen!”
Technically, narrowly, positive, that’s completely true: Oklahoma fans did inform us Lincoln Riley didn’t have the defensive aspect of the ball discovered, that Alex Grinch didn’t maximize defensive assets, that plenty of shootout-style video games would happen underneath Riley’s watch, and that substantial leads can be blown. Yes, OU fans warned us.
And?
Yes, in fact. USC fans were aware this was prone to occur in Year 1.
USC fans were anticipating the protection to be unhealthy. USC fans were anticipating the offense to have to hold this crew. We were all very, very shocked USC held Oregon State and Washington State to 14 factors. We couldn’t consider these two video games unfolded the way in which they did. We anticipated USC to have to attain at the very least 40 factors to win video games, which is what occurred in opposition to Arizona and Cal and UCLA.
The entire “We told you Riley had these flaws!” chorus from some Oklahoma fans suggests or implies that USC fans both didn’t know what was coming, or have been saddled with a fatally flawed coach and are in a world of damage.
That’s not the truth of the scenario.
First, USC fans knew what was coming.
Second, with the Trojans bettering by seven wins from 2021 and having a fantastic likelihood to win 11 or extra video games in 2023, we’re not precisely struggling over right here. We know the protection wants to enhance, however the Clay Helton period is behind us. USC is nationally related once more. The Trojans are going to win 11 video games in a season (at minimal) regularly for so long as Riley is the coach.
It’s fairly good over right here. Ian Hest produced our newest podcast, through which we mentioned these and different Oklahoma-flavored matters:
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USC women’s basketball moves into projected NCAA Tournament field after huge win over Stanford
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