Important takeaways from latest USC loss

Following a disappointing loss to Notre Dame, the focus has to immediately shift to Big Ten play for USC.

It is not exactly a secret that teams will continue to try to run the ball at the Trojans, attempting to see if they can control the game from the line of scrimmage while giving themselves the best chance to control the time of possession and the area that matters most in college football.

The onus continues to be on the Trojans to show that they are better qualified for the true gauntlet that presents itself in their new conference.

Although many would not have expected USC to necessarily have a winning record in their past three games, the way in which the Trojans have lost to Illinois and Notre Dame on the road spells out a certain degree of concern while highlighting some of the aspects that have been brought up regarding this coach Lincoln Riley team and the limiting factors that have not allowed past iterations of his programs to achieve the ultimate goal, which is, of course, to win a national championship.

There is now a full bye week to see if this USC program can make the needed fixes in order to at least mount a challenge to the Big Ten hierarchy.

As things stand now, however, the prospect is looking bleak, and instead some of the same patterns that continue to plague the program appear to not be going away anytime soon until they are indeed solved.