In less than 24 hours following the Holiday Bowl’s decision to pit USC against Wisconsin, Trojans coach Clay Helton announced he gutted the coaching staff and his former boss, Steve Sarkisian, filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit against the university. At a place where the bizarre became the expected a long time ago, neither turn of events should have been considered all too surprising, but, unfortunately, it did mean the spotlight has, again, shifted from the reason all of this matters: actual football.
So, for at least a little while, let’s change that and take a quick look at what lies ahead for USC ... on the field.
Considering the Trojans came a win away from the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Northwestern Mutual, their slide to the Holiday Bowl is somewhat disappointing, but it could have been worse. It was unlikely the Holiday Bowl would have selected USC if Helton still had the interim tag, and the bowl still gave serious consideration to Washington State once Helton was given the permanent gig. If the Cougars were picked, it would have meant a trip to the Hyundai Sun Bowl for USC as the Foster Farms Bowl was set on UCLA for several days.
So, while return bowl trips are less than ideal, a meeting with Wisconsin in San Diego makes up for it. Especially considering the alternative was a game the day after Christmas in El Paso, Texas.
Since losing 35-17 to Alabama to open the year, the Badgers have gone 9-2 and allowed just 11.1 points per game. Defensively, they’re as formidable an opponent as the Trojans have seen all year and with three weeks before kickoff present as important a test for the coaching staff -- notably Tee Martin, who is the top in-house candidate to take over as offensive coordinator -- as it will be for the players. Fifth-year quarterback Cody Kessler will obviously want to finish his career on a high note, but running backs Justin Davis and Ronald Jones II both figure to see plenty of duty as team becomes more run-oriented under Helton.
On the other side, Wisconsin’s barely-functioning offense (5.29 yards per play ranked 11th in the Big Ten) led to just 13 combined points in losses to Iowa (10-6) and Northwestern (13-7) and is the reason it didn’t play Michigan State in the conference championship game.
That's a welcome sight for USC, which was torched for 41 points and allowed Christian McCaffrey to account for 461 all-purpose yards (207 rushing, 105 receiving, 149 return) in its loss to Stanford in the Pac-12 title game. And with a patchwork defensive coaching staff -- defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox, defensive line coach Chris Wilson and defensive backs coach Keith Heyward were among those axed by Helton on Sunday -- it’s also hard to imagine the Trojans will come with some kind of complex defense game plan.
It will be interesting to see at what point Helton announces staff additions. He said he'll take his time to make sure he gets them right, but the Trojans aren't expected to resume practice until Dec. 19, so it's plausible he could have a new defensive coordinator in place before then. That wouldn't allow for any wholesale changes, but it would speed up the acclimation process with an eye trained on the future.