USC faces brutal 6-game gauntlet to close 2023 season

While all the rage is about USC’s Big Ten opponents for the 2024 and ‘25 seasons, the Trojans have a brutal six-game stretch in 2023.

The end of the year consists of Notre Dame on the road, Utah at home, California away, Washington on the home turf, a road trip to Eugene, Oregon and hosting rival UCLA. Good luck winning all of those games Lincoln Riley.

WeAreSC’s Scott Scrader joined J.D. PicKell on the On3 Roundtable to break down the end of the schedule.

“That has got to be as challenging a finish to a football season for USC at least looking at at this time of year that I’ve seen in a very long time,” Schrader said. “You know, it includes some exceptionally hard road games. Going to (Oregon) and Notre Dame are difficult even when they aren’t good. They’re both good. So that is going to be an extremely challenging finish.” 

Schrader dove into the rivalry game with the Bruins. Right now, Chip Kelly has the UCLA football program going in the right direction, and that could be a thorn in USC’s side.

“You know, and then you have UCLA Chip Kelly who just keeps raising the bar a little bit on the trajectory of that program,” Schrader said. “And Utah speaks for itself. They’ve really been the top program in the Pac 12 for the last, you know, five or six years. So I’m looking at that schedule, and it’s going to be extremely challenging, to say the least.” 

Of course the Pac-12 continually improved going into the final year of the conference’s alignment. USC and UCLA leave for the Big Ten next season.

“And how ironic that this is the last year of the season UCLA playing in the Pac 12 and it’s going to probably be one of the better years that we’ve seen in a long time,” Schrader said.

But does that schedule hinder USC’s ability to make the playoff? Not necessarily.

With the quality of opponents, win after win would only further cement USC’s playoff resume.

“Yeah, there has to be pressure to at least make the playoffs this year, with it being Caleb Williams‘ final season. They’ve added a lot of roster upgrades defensively,” Schrader said. “And I just think that, personally, I think Lincoln Riley came in and his expectations, I thought he was completely unrealistic with what he expected for this past season. And he met those during the regular season.”