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Tuli Tuipulotu shares most interesting part of USC's 2022 season

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby:On3 Staff Report•12/10/22
Tuli Tuipulotu, USC Trojans defensive lineman
USC defensive lineman Tuli Tuipulotu runs during the Pac-12 Champiosnhip Game against Utah on Dec. 2, 2022. (Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)

No. 10 USC‘s College Football Playoff bid came to a disappointing end when the Trojans fell to Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game, but it’s hard to forget the sheer amount of success USC’s 2022 season showed under first-year coach Lincoln Riley.

Riley took over a USC program that won just four games the season prior to his arrival. One moment stands out to star defensive lineman Tuli Tuipulotu as a real turning point.

“I’d say the game against Oregon State,” Tuipulotu said while doing interviews this week at the Rotary Lombardi Award ceremony. “We had a tough game that game and then towards the end we had a fourth-down play where Caleb Williams scrambled, ran toward the first down. He looked short, but then we had one of our offensive linemen, Brett Neilon, come and push him in and I just feel like that changed the course of our season.”

The play extended an eventual game-winning drive.

Facing fourth-and-6 from his own 43-yard line, Williams took off up the middle as the pocket collapsed. He was stacked up by Oregon linebacker Omar Speights about one yard short of the first-down maker.

Then Neilon slammed into him from behind as Andrew Vorhees also raced in to help push the pile.

“If we didn’t get that first down we wouldn’t be in the championship, we wouldn’t be in that conversation,” Tuipulotu said. “So I think that’s what’s probably most interesting to me.”

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USC’s 2022 season a definite building block

While the Trojans could have some talented pieces to replace from this year’s squad, the foundation USC’s 2022 season has helped put in place under Riley is a strong one.

USC very quickly re-established itself as a viable Pac-12 threat with that Oregon State win.

Eventually, the Trojans rolled to an 11-1 regular season, with the only loss coming on the road at Utah courtesy of a successful two-point conversion for the win by the Utes. Utah would trip up USC again in the Pac-12 Championship Game, but the Trojans seem to have reset the expectations again in Los Angeles.

With a move to the Big Ten looming, USC’s 2022 season should have the college football world on notice: The Trojans appear to be here to stay.