Assessing USC's potential path from .500 to annual playoff contenders in 2025

Every year in college football, there is a team that makes a jump. USC is in a great position to make a significant improvement on their .500 regular season win total from 2024.

Long story short, a six-win record, including 4-5 in the Big Ten, is unacceptable, regardless of which conference the Trojans are in. There is a lot that points toward USC improving in the win column by three or four prior to a bowl game.

Simply using the logic of the Trojans having lost close matchups toward the end cannot be enough. After all, USC also won some close games that could have gone the other way. By and large, the team's record is who the 2024 team was. These types of things tend to play out the way that they should.

There are always exceptions, but a program tends to finish the year around what they deserve. Instead, stating that USC will be improved and be closer to a double-digit win team has more to do with the moves that coach Lincoln Riley and this staff have made over the offseason.

Then add how the returning players have looked toward the end of 2024 and the incoming additions, and this will be a roster that not only wins more of the closer games but will also be in a position to not be in single-possession outcomes down the stretch in the first place.

Some may look at what is viewed as a favorable schedule, particularly early on, but that should not play too much a part of the equation. For one, there is always an 'Indiana' that does better than what most anticipate. Overlooking anyone or taking any opponent on the schedule for granted is what can lead to an unsuspecting opponent taking USC off guard.

Season of anticipation ahead for USC fans

Right now, because of where the Trojans have been in more recent times, it is an upcoming season that fans should enjoy each matchup as they come. The goal is to take care of the opponents that USC is favored against and then avoid losing against the currently better teams.

With that approach and a little fortune of the ball bouncing USC's way, making the College Football Playoffs would be an achievable goal. Either way, hitting the magic mark of nine regular season wins is certainly possible. Hitting that benchmark and then potentially even going further would be a great building block to further solidify what this Trojan staff is building on campus.