Signs of progress that need to be seen by USC against Purdue

It was not the outcome that USC fans were hoping for in some aspects. Yes, the scoreline against Georgia Southern looked pretty good. Coach Clay Helton's team, though, could easily feel like they won a moral victory when taking the skill gap into account and how the visitors looked at times at the Coliseum on Saturday.

Some Trojan fans are understandably worried for when the meat of the Big Ten schedule takes place. Nothing against Missouri State, Georgia Southern, or Purdue, who is the next opponent of USC. It is simply a fact, though, that the rest of the schedule boasts a bigger challenge in terms of rosters and abilities. Perhaps most importantly, the rest of the teams that the Trojans will face have the ability to punish USC for any mistakes.

Because of this, coach Lincoln Riley and his staff will have to quickly come up with a way to clean some areas up if they are indeed to go far this season and even potentially make a College Football Playoff push.

Coach Riley has already mentioned the push of this staff to help to ensure that complacency does not take place within this locker room. Following the performance against the Eagles and with the Boilermakers right around the corner, there will be plenty of areas, both in terms of the scheme and individually, that the coaches can point to in order to motivate the team to get better.

What to look for during USC's next game

Sometimes, the other team will simply make a good play. Even when playing an opponent that has less inherent talent, there is still the ability of any Division I player to show up on the highlight reel through a great effort. The aspect that needs to be limited, if not eliminated altogether, is that of the easy mistakes. As mentioned, the better the team, the more likely of a chance that USC will be punished for doing something that should be easily avoidable.

This first Big Ten game is going to be an important one. Perhaps the expectation of what the final scoreline in West Lafayette will be will minimize the importance of this matchup for some. In any event, USC needs to show growth and improvement from last week in order to prepare for what is to come.