Important year for USC will greatly shape opinion of current staff

For some, 2025 is a make-it-or-break-it year for coach Lincoln Riley at USC. While there may be questions as to if he is truly on the hot seat or not, this is certainly a season that will ask a lot out of the Trojans.

Over the past seasons, the product has not been good enough. Now, with other programs continuing to make strides, USC is in a position in which there needs to be something a little bit beyond simply potential to show that the Trojans too are on the right track.

Depending on who is asked, that could look any number of ways. Based on the opinion of some, that needs to manifest itself into being a playoff team. Although that might not be a reasonable initial, pre-season expectation, the principle holds. USC needs to do well and compile a bunch of wins in 2025.

Making the playoffs at this moment could end up being a bridge too far. Going .500 during the regular season, however, is something that would need to be avoided at all costs, though. Finishing around nine-plus wins would exceed the expectations of some of the more pessimistic of the fan base and would ultimately be enough, with a bowl game, to give confidence that things are indeed heading in the right direction.

Measuring expectations for USC in July

What success ultimately looks like can differ. It can be something of a silly proposition to blindly assess how many wins USC would need to have right now, before a single down has even been played. More importantly, how the team does and how competitive they are, particularly in some of the tougher matchups, will be more telling.

If, for example, the Trojans were to lose a couple of close games with a bad penalty call going against USC, then there could be an element of forgiveness from what is an already frustrated fan base. By contrast, not looking tough or particularly well prepared would result in the equivalent of angry mobs.

With that in mind, 2025 is undeniably important for USC football.