Caleb Williams admits USC's Cotton Bowl loss will linger, burn into the offseason

Before the season, if you told USC they made the Pac-12 Championship and appeared in a New Year’s Six game, they would most likely accept the offer. If you then told them both would result in losses, there would be some pause. It’s not how anyone wanted to close out the year, especially quarterback Caleb Williams.

All is not lost for Williams, as he gets to return to Los Angeles for another season. Even so, dropping the final game of the year leaves a bad taste in your mouth for a long time. USC will not play again until late August and will not even get back onto the practice field for a couple of months.

“It’s going to linger,” Williams said. “Last game of the season. You lose the last game of the season going into the offseason, it burns. Don’t have a game after. It burns.”

USC participated in the Cotton Bowl against Tulane, dropping one to the Group of Five opponent. Losing is one thing but when you collapse in the fourth quarter as the Trojans did, it’s a tougher pill to swallow. Williams will be sitting on the loss for at least a few more months.

Once Williams moves on, he will be looking for revenge. Not particularly against Tulane but just hoping for better results during the 2023 season. He has discussed multiple times how winning the Heisman Trophy was a nice moment but getting a national championship is the ultimate goal.

Lincoln Riley admits USC loss is one of his toughest

USC‘s season did not end the way they planned, losing in their conference championship and bowl game following an 11-win regular season in Lincoln Riley’s first year as the Trojans’ head coach.

The Trojans’ one-point upset loss to Tulane in the Cotton Bowl was a down-to-the-wire heartbreaker that no team wants to be on the wrong end of, as Riley gave kudos to Tulane’s program following the loss.

Riley has lost in College Football Playoff and in bowl games before but said this most recent Cotton Bowl loss may take the cake for being the toughest of his entire career.

“It’s as tough a loss as I can remember in my entire career,” Riley said. “You know, had the momentum a number of times. Obviously, didn’t do a very good job finishing there at the end. The thing we told the guys in the locker room, obviously a very very disappointed locker room, losses like this are always just tough to digest man, they really are.”