Lightning delay gives chance to showcase this aspect within USC program

A lightning delay poses a significant and difficult challenge for USC. Although it is fun at the beginning of the year to look at the schedule and pencil in certain games as victories or losses, things like this show why there are always a multitude of factors that end up impacting games.

For many athletes it is incredibly important to have a routine and to be able to maintain it. This is part of the challenge of going on the road. Now, though, facing the uncertainty of when the game will actually begin and consequently when the players can actually start warming up is an additional difficulty that can throw things off.

This provides the opportunity for coach Lincoln Riley to show that his program is indeed on a better trajectory. For a while now the Trojans have been criticized for being too soft and weak-minded in the areas that matter.

Seeing how this USC team navigates the delay on the road will be somewhat telling as to the current status of the program in this regard.

Important USC preparation factors

A concern could be that once the game does get started, the players are not ready and come out flat. The other aspect to look at, and what would prove to be a more telling sign in terms of maturity, is if it ends up being that the players exerted too much energy during the buildup due to the delay and then did not have the needed focus or reserves to finish out four quarters of play.

This is part of what coach Riley is going to have to navigate and deal with in order to prevent the Trojans from being upset on the road.

Time will tell if the current pillars are strong enough at this moment within the program to circumvent this unusual set of circumstances for USC.