Blowout Offers 2020 Vision Of USC's Future

Saturday’s 41-17 rout at Cal was another example of what USC can be and should be and, in 2020, probably will be.

Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports

BERKELEY, Calif. -- USC will be the favorite to win the Pac-12 next season, regardless of its head coach.

The Trojans will not only trot out the conference’s most talented team -- something they’re credited for annually even when it’s not true -- but they’ll have depth and experience in the right places. In other words, they’re more than just the West’s best 7-on-7 team.

For anyone who missed Saturday’s 8 p.m. kickoff, USC’s 41-17 rout at Cal was another example of what it can be and should be and, in 2020, probably will be.

“We had the game ball in there, I really couldn’t give it to one guy,” Coach Clay Helton said. “This was really a team win. There were big plays made by a lot of people.”

Let’s start with Michael Pittman, who caught 11 more passes for 180 yards and a touchdown. His season totals will put him in the All-American discussion. Wide receivers coach Keary Colbert said the senior has carved out a place among USC’s all-time greats at the position.

“After the year he’s had, he has to be in those conversations,” said Colbert, who briefly held the Trojans’ career receptions record. “I think people are going to remember this season that he’s having and they’re going to remember him for a long time.

“I think he’s one of the better guys to come through.”

It’s fair to call Pittman the team’s best player. He just isn’t the most important. That distinction belongs to freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis, who topped 400 passing yards for the third time in the past four games. Matt Barkley didn’t reach that figure until he was a junior. Sam Darnold did it once -- in his entire college career.

Slovis also threw four touchdowns against a defense that had allowed just nine through the air this season. It marked the fifth time Slovis has thrown at least three, matching Darnold’s redshirt freshman campaign in fewer starts. Barkley didn’t throw more than two touchdowns in any game as a rookie.

“You’ve seen flashes of him doing this all year,” offensive coordinator Graham Harrell said. “He’s just doing it on a much more consistent basis. When you do that with the guys we have around him, in this offense, you got a chance to be really special. And he’s a special player, don’t get me wrong. It’s not like this is just happening.

“To be a true freshman and do what he does is really, really impressive. But I don’t think he’s really changed. He’s just doing it on a more consistent basis.”

Some will inevitably point to volume, except Slovis barely throws more often than his predecessors. Darnold averaged 34.3 attempts per start for his career, and Barkley averaged 33.2. Slovis is at 38.1 in his eight complete games.

The 4-5 extra passes aren’t inflating Slovis' yards or touchdowns. Blame his 70.7 completion percentage. After completing 29 of 35 passes (82.8 percent) versus the Golden Bears, Slovis is back on track to set the school record.

I’m not sure what’s more surprising given his modest recruitment: his advanced arm talent or intangibles? Helton has coached three five-star QBs and Cody Kessler during his decade at USC, and none of them throw a better ball than Slovis. Helton will just as soon point out how well his 18-year-old signal caller commands the huddle and sideline and doesn’t get flustered.

Both Darnold and J.T. Daniels struggled in USC’s previous two meetings against Justin Wilcox & Co. The latter lost while the former was tied in the fourth quarter. Slovis was sacked three times in the first four drives at Memorial Stadium but didn’t let it affect him otherwise.

Despite an unreliable run game, Slovis forced just one pass on the evening, which also came early. Moreover, he avoided taking another sack and didn’t throw an interception while averaging 11.6 yards per attempt.

“He’s showing us that he’s an elite college quarterback,” Pittman said.

USC (7-4) might have a dozen elite players -- not just prospects -- on its roster. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Talanoa Hufanga and Drake Jackson are close. Olaijah Griffin, Markese Stepp and Drake London can get there. Jay Tufele, Olaijah Griffin and Alijah Vera-Tucker are somewhere in between.

None of them are even juniors. There are several other underclassmen who contribute in a meaningful way, or eventually will.

Helton said he wanted to test his defense and coverage team by not electing to receive the opening kickoff for the first time all season. It initially backfired, as Cal drove the length of the field for a touchdown. Additionally, last week’s hero, senior defensive end Christian Rector, was ejected for targeting on the eighth play from scrimmage.

The Bears didn’t score their second touchdown until midway through the fourth quarter.

“Sometimes you have to be able to show confidence in the guys that are around you,” Helton explained. “It may not have paid off for the first drive, but it paid off for the game. When a coach has confidence in the men that are around him, they’ll feed off it.”

The Trojans were just as good on offense, despite breaking in a true freshman center and playing without several key weapons.

Saturday’s win was their third within the conference by at least 24 points. Whereas such dominance was a staple of the Pete Carroll era, USC has compiled that many Pac-12 blowouts in just one other season since he left (2014).

Utah has four of those wins this year and Oregon has three, USC being one of them, which is why the inconsistent Trojans remain a longshot to win the division in 2019, much less the conference. But neither Pac-12 power features just four senior starters departing and up to 18 starters set to return on both sides of the ball.

This includes USC’s entire secondary, three of four spots on the D-line, four of five on the O-line, all the tight ends (for what it’s worth), the whole running back stable, and the remaining wide receivers with the possible exception of Tyler Vaughns.

The redshirt junior has been a model of consistency this year, catching at least four passes in every game until Saturday. He barely played against Cal because of an ankle injury, a development that ultimately had no bearing on the outcome. Pittman is by far the biggest current piece that will be missing from next year’s puzzle, but he also happens to play in the team’s deepest position group.

"I've never seen a receiving corps like that in this conference, not in 20 years,” Wilcox said. “… The matchups are as tough as it's been. I've seen great receivers in this league, but not a collection like that."

Less Vaughns on Saturday simply meant more Pittman, St. Brown and London, who caught six passes and posted his first career 100-yard game. It began with the 6-foot-5 freshman towering over a helpless defender for a 45-yard gain. He would later score a touchdown for the third consecutive week. The first-year wideout has blossomed over the last month after seeing a handful of targets fall incomplete or intercepted in the first half of the season.

Pittman said he challenged London following the Washington game, where the rookie was run off his route on an incomplete fourth-and-goal pass in the fourth quarter. London described it as a “humbling experience” that underlined the importance of leverage. Since then, he has improved his hands and catch radius immensely while demonstrating a propensity to make plays in traffic.

Never mind that London is playing in the slot for the first time in his life and didn’t even go through spring practice to get acclimated.

“I think he has the opportunity to be as good if not better than any of the guys that we have, to be honest with you,” Harrell said. “He’s just that talented of a guy. He has a skillset I’ve never seen before, with his size and still having the body control and ball skills and twitch that he has. I haven’t been around many like him.”

Of course, London's unique talents also extend to basketball, which he plans to pursue the moment this football season is over. Though he’s already committed to doubling up his freshman year, he looks like he might be too good on the gridiron to split his time for long.

“We still got to see what basketball holds,” he reiterated Saturday.

We already have a pretty good idea what football holds, for London and for USC. Just wait till next year. No, really.

-- Adam Maya is a USC graduate and has been covering the Trojans since 2003. Follow him on Twitter @AdamJMaya.