Desmond Howard, Greg McElroy critical of USC entering midpoint of 2023 season

The USC Trojans came into the 2023 season as one of the favorites in the Pac-12, who many thought could make a run at the College Football Playoff. All of that is still on the table, but there are many experts who think that stock is down on the Trojans.

During an episode of College Football Live, Desmond Howard and Greg McElroy agreed that despite USC being unbeaten, they’d be selling any stock in USC.

“When you look at USC, you understand that they have a special talent in Caleb Williams as the quarterback who won the Heisman a year ago,” Desmond Howard said. “But then you look at the other side of the ball and that defense. I think the stock for USC right now is going down.”

One of the main reasons why Howard is down on the Trojans is their defense against Colorado. In particular, the second-half comeback that saw USC give up 27 points in the second half.

“Obviously, the offense is very impressive. They’re going to score a lot of points. They’re gonna gain a lot of yards on a bunch of teams, but the flip side is the defense,” Howard said. “Seems like they have the same problems this year that they had a year ago. Blown assignments, poor tackling out in space. So, I’m gonna have to say for right now that because of the way Colorado came back in that second half, that USC’s stock is going down.”

For his part, Greg McElroy agreed with Desmond Howard. Because of USC’s defensive effort against Colorado, he’s selling on the Trojans.

“I agree with you, Des. I’m selling as it relates to USC. Talk about a group that just gave up 565 yards of offense, 318 yards after halftime. It’s almost as if they forgot how to tackle in the second half of that football game. Two times Colorado went the length of the field in five plays or less in 90 seconds. Then, twice after that, they scored on two long, methodical drives. They just couldn’t get anything right. [Shedeur] Sanders was getting time in the pocket, receivers started finding holes in coverage. Then, you look at 262 yards for Sanders after halftime,” McElroy said.

“I guess the [Colorado] rushing attack, by the way, which is among the worst in the country, went for 193 yards. So, they only had 223 the first four games and 193 against SC, that’s not what you’re looking for. So, defensively, if SC wants to get where they want to go, they need to take significant strides on that side of the ball. They looked good in the first four but they came back to Earth in a big way last Saturday.”

USC will have opportunities to prove Howard and McElroy wrong, with games against Notre Dame, Utah, Washington, and Oregon.

Lincoln Riley says that some USC players let up against Colorado

After USC’s game against Colorado, Lincoln Riley admitted some USC players may have let their foot off the gas against Colorado.

“Do I think we had some guys that probably thought the game was over and fell asleep a little bit? Yeah I do, I mean we were beating up on them pretty good. And do I think we had some guys that thought that? Yeah, I do. I think we had some young guys that lost a little bit of focus and missed a few plays and then what’s crazy is once a team that doesn’t have momentum gets a little bit of it then all of a sudden you’re gonna play an even better opponent at that point. It changes and you gotta be ready for that and you gotta expect that,” Riley said.

“And then did we have some guys when we lost some momentum that panicked a little bit that went away from doing some of the things that got you such a big lead in the first place? Sure we did, the hard thing in football is it’s not basketball or it’s not an individual sport where you only got a few guys out there. I mean you got 11 guys on the field at a time and you’re playing with, I mean realistically you’re playing 40 or 50 guys. So this person might be in this head space, this person might me in this head space, it’s not necessarily everybody’s one or the other.”