Where does USC go from here with its struggling

After an inconsistent start to the season for USC’s secondary, the defensive coordinator stood in entrance of a cadre of cameras and didn’t mince phrases. There have been too many coverage busts main to too many big cross performs, he said. He deliberate to spend the bye week finding out movie with microscopic focus in hopes of understanding precisely what had gone flawed.

“The lowlights cannot be that low,” he said. “You can’t just say it happens sometimes. Those things can’t happen.”

That coordinator was Alex Grinch, talking in September 2023. Six weeks later, he was fired.

The circumstances aren’t fairly that dire for the Trojans’ protection — or Grinch’s successor, D’Anton Lynn — in October 2025. But the issues with big cross performs have persevered since then. In fact, they’ve been worse this season than they have been under USC’s earlier coordinator, in spite of the fact that USC has yet to play a top-40 passing offense.

Through 5 video games, USC has given up 51 cross performs of 10 yards or more. That’s eighth worst in the nation, equating to an average of over 10 such performs per recreation. And against Illinois, that propensity for permitting explosive performs got here back to chunk USC in a brutal loss.

“The pass defense has to get better,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said after the sport. “It just wasn’t good enough.”

Two days later, when requested about the state of his secondary, Riley took a more encouraging tone. The cornerbacks, he said, “had a few errors here and there.” Take the sport’s two greatest cross performs out of the equation, he added, and “it’s going to be really tough for them to beat us.”

Whether his cornerbacks have that same confidence popping out of the loss might be another query. How they reply out of this week’s bye, with key matchups against Michigan and Notre Dame forward, would possibly finally decide the course of USC’s season.

“Confidence, you can’t fake that,” Riley said. “We’re doing enough good things that it should show up and there should be confidence from that, but if we keep making some of the mistakes that we’ve made, whether it’s a busted coverage, or like not leveraging the football — those are controllable on us. Other people aren’t even having to make plays that way.”

Three consequential moments in the second half last Saturday have been immediately correlated to crippling errors from USC defensive backs. An Illinois swing cross in the third quarter went for a 64-yard rating after security Bishop Fitzgerald took a dangerous angle on operating back Justin Feagin, and two corners in the realm failed to shed blocks. Then, in the fourth quarter, another cornerback, Braylon Conley, was burned twice on explosive cross performs — first, when he was beat for a landing on a slant over the center, and then, on the following possession, when he fell down defending a hitch route that exploded for 61 yards.

Most of the group’s most evident errors on big performs this season have been attributed to breakdowns in communication. Those points have been only exacerbated last week in the absence of security Kamari Ramsey, who had lately taken over relaying calls from the sideline to the secondary.

Ramsey ought to return next week, but Riley said this week that communication on protection has been a main focus for USC.

To Fitzgerald, the week off was a probability to “fully reset everything” in the secondary.

“It’s really just focusing more on the same things and trying to execute as a whole,” Fitzgerald said. “As a defense, if 10 guys do one thing but one person does the wrong thing, it’s a busted play. We can’t afford that. So we’re just trying to get everybody on the same page.”

As the Trojans enter the most tough stretch of their schedule, it’s not clear who the coaches will trust most at nook going ahead.

Injuries early this season robbed USC of two of its most skilled cornerbacks, Prophet Brown and Chasen Johnson. Then last week, as USC’s secondary unraveled in the loss to Illinois, redshirt senior DeCarlos Nicholson was in and out of the lineup with what appeared to be a nagging hamstring.

Nicholson, nonetheless, has been USC’s most constant cowl nook through 5 weeks. Across from him, redshirt freshman Marcelles Williams has began the last three video games, but hasn’t by any means run away with the job.

Senior DJ Harvey was introduced in from the switch portal to be a major contributor at nook, but he has fallen far short of those expectations. He performed only 5 snaps last Saturday, in spite of the staff’s dire depth at nook, but one of those performs resulted in a devastating cross interference call on Illinois’ game-winning drive.

“We’re pretty young out there on the perimeter right now, without having Prophet and Chasen,” Riley said. “We need [Harvey’s] experience to show up. His emergence in this next phase of the season will be important for us, and he’s going to get every opportunity to do it.”

The most unsure spot in the secondary has been in the slot, where Riley has yet to discover a succesful alternative for Brown. But USC may need an reply on the best way in the shape of true freshman Alex Graham.

Graham was an early standout during USC’s preseason camp but has been on the shelf since. Coaches have prompt he may return as soon as next week against Michigan and probably step into a vital function instantly in the slot, where, to this level, USC has relied on Ramsey enjoying out of place.

There’s not a lot depth at defensive back for USC to mine after that. True freshman RJ Sermons was one of the more coveted cornerback prospects in America, when he reclassified in the spring to enroll at USC a yr early.

Riley didn’t rule out the chance that Sermons, who needs to be a senior in high faculty, may play a crucial function down the stretch. He said USC was “pushing it” with both he and Graham in hopes that they’d be prepared “sooner than later.”

“They’re two guys that are talented enough to contribute for us right now,” Riley said. “You’re on just a race against time to get them ready, to pump as many reps into those guys. Because they clearly have the ability.”

Regardless, it’s going to take more than two true freshmen to regular USC’s secondary. The more urgent query now, after a suspect start this season, is whether or not the remaining of the group is ready to proper the ship from here.

“One game doesn’t define them as a player, doesn’t define us as a defense,” security Christian Pierce said. “We just keep our heads high and put the best foot forward.”