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The three games USC football must win in 2024
By John Fye
USC will officially be a Big Ten Conference member on August 2. What lies ahead is a nine-game conference schedule and two non-conference games against blue-blood opponents. Much has been said about Lincoln Riley's future in Southern California in recent days. Thus, it is imperative that the Trojans find success on the field in 2024.
We don't anticipate USC will win double-digit games and compete for the Big Ten championship, but Riley's roster has the potential to compete for an at-large bid in the expanded College Football Playoff. Either way, there are three games the Trojans must win this season. The first win has to come in week one in Las Vegas.
USC must beat LSU in the Vegas Kickoff Classic
Recent comments from Joe Castiglione and Paul Finebaum have reignited the "Lincoln Riley is afraid of the SEC" narrative. Indeed, I have combated droves of Oklahoma fans on the Reign of Troy Facebook page for two days. Whiney Sooners fans continue clinging to their favorite fairy tale, but USC fans know the Trojans head coach fears no conference.
Thus, Riley must quiet the haters with a win over a rising SEC program to start the season.
USC unsuccessfully attempted to bail on the Vegas Kickoff Classic after agreeing to join the Big Ten. Of course, the SEC bootlickers compacted such onto their Riley rhetoric. Meanwhile, their favorite SEC football programs will play the typical eight-game conference schedule augmented by Group Four and FCS opponents.
USC beating LSU in Week 1 will immediately silence most of the haters. A victory will also show that Riley is building a program in Southern California that can compete with the SEC's CFP-caliber programs. Moreover, the results for Riley against LSU were pitiful the last time they matched up in 2019.
LSU has lost its last pair of Week 1 neutral site games, and USC must make it a 3rd come September 1.