Despite early concerns, USC is being overlooked in current college football landscape

In a vacuum it makes sense for USC to not be ranked at the moment. The quality of opponents has not exactly been impressive, and some mistakes that occurred, particularly against Georgia Southern, are going to be difficult to unsee.

Even so, when assessing some of the teams that are in the Top 25 among the various outlets, Trojan fans have every right to cry foul and to point out how much more impressive USC has been through two games so far.

While some are lamenting the early non-conference portion of the Trojan schedule, multiple college football teams have played easier opponents. Yet no one has been able to show the early signs of dominance quite to the extent that the Trojans have.

Jayden Maiava and the offense have been playing so well that the first string is yet to finish a game so far. Instead, the Trojans' lead has been so large that USC fans have had the luxury of being able to catch an early glimpse of Husan Longstreet and other younger talents on the roster.

Now, with a Big Ten conference opponent up next, USC will have a chance to begin to change the minds of those still skeptical about the program.

Meaningfulness of upcoming USC game

Two things still have to take place, even in the event of a Trojan blowout in West Lafayette.

For one, USC will need to still prove it against the better BIG teams. Secondly, the Trojans have to button up some aspects that have shown up on tape through the first two matchups.

Of course, the rankings or evaluations only two weeks into the season make little difference. At the end of the year, everything will even out, and the pretenders and true contenders will have long separated by then. Still, the early dismissal of the potential of USC is fairly difficult to ignore as things stand now.