USC football: Game-by-game predictions for 2022 season

It's hard to figure out just what Lincoln Riley and this new-look USC football squad has in store for the fans in 2022. The expectations for the program have been very wide-ranging throughout the offseason, and there's been so much change and turnover that there's little to base a prediction off of.

The team was 4-8 last season, but this is a completely different team. That completely different team began with SC hiring a top five coach in America, and ended with him going on a wild never-before-seen run where he brought in 20 transfers. Among those 20; two five-star transfers and five four-star transfers.

Riley has never NOT finished in the Top 10 before in his five seasons as a head coach. He comes from an Oklahoma program that made three College Football Playoffs in his time there. He won four Big 12 Championships. His pedigree is absurd. SC's season was last year, too, but for the opposite reason. It begs the question; where on that spectrum will USC football be by the time the 12 games are up?

Game-by-game prediction for USC football vs. Rice: W--USC 55, Rice 20

USC football won't have an issue with Rice this year. They won't have an issue with Rice any year. They've played the Owls three times, and the one time they didn't win was a tie. It was in 1948. That doesn't inspire a ton of confidence in Rice, who also went 4-8 last year. A 4-8 record in Conference USA...

Projected 2022 Record: 1-0