USC drops hype video ahead of Week 9 matchup with California Golden Bears

The USC Trojans currently sit at 6-2 overall, but they’ll look to bounce back this weekend against the Cal Golden Bears. While the Trojans might not have the record they’d dreamed of when the season started, they’ve still got plenty of exciting weapons on the offensive side of the ball.

And a number of big-time matchups in the upcoming weeks against the Washington Huskies, the Oregon Ducks, and the UCLA Bruins. On Friday night, they dropped a hype video ahead of their Week 9 matchup with California.

Check it out below.

(still) on a mission. 😤✌️#FridayNightHype🍿 pic.twitter.com/ApZdF0YVqJ

— USC Football ✌️ (@uscfb) October 28, 2023

USC is coming off two straight losses, first to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, then yet another heartbreaker to the Utah Utes. It was USC’s fourth-straight loss to Utah.

The Trojans welcomed back head coach Lincoln Riley, after he had to battle pneumonia earlier in the week.

How can USC bounce back?

Three weeks ago, USC was 6-0 and a top-10 team with College Football Playoff aspirations. Things have changed since then, though, with back-to-back losses to Notre Dame and Utah dropping the Trojans to 6-2 — and raising more questions about the program the rest of the way.

Week 8 marked the second straight year USC lost to Utah, this time a 34-32 defeat at home. That second loss of the season effectively knocked the Trojans out of College Football Playoff contention. No team has ever made the CFP with two losses.

But according to Pac-12 Network analyst Yogi Roth, the sky is not falling in Los Angeles. While he understands the reaction to USC’s struggles, he thinks Lincoln Riley’s group will be able to bounce back.

“When you look at SC — and I was there earlier this week in advance of this game [against Cal] — while on the outside … this is L.A., man,” Roth told Andy Staples on Andy Staples On3. “Everything is hyper-dramatic, everything is a lot of expectations, which SC has put on themselves. But every coach pretty much puts on themselves. Like, how are you supposed to generate excitement if you don’t say our goal is to win and win big? But within the walls of that thing, the players, the units, the sides of the ball, the staff. It’s dialed, man. They are not fragmenting.

“It is not, ‘I’m going to sit out the season.’ Like, some of those comments are lunacy to me when you’re looking at where we sit. And I get why. I could have the conversation, rationally, around the ‘Why?’ behind it. But knowing Caleb Williams the way that I’ve gotten to know him since he was in high school, knowing this program and covering it every single year like we have, this team is gonna be fine,” Roth said.

On3’s Nick Schultz also contributed to this article.