It was a delicate gesture. A nod of respect from USC to a soccer coach who spent a dozen years within the constructing earlier than an unceremonious exit. However as the general public deal with announcer took the uncommon step of studying Clay Helton’s title aloud, the frustration from his ultimate few years at USC got here pouring out in a refrain of boos from all corners of the Coliseum.
Seems, even 4 years after his firing, Helton may nonetheless conjure difficult emotions among the many Trojan trustworthy. What he couldn’t do Saturday is cease the Trojans from taking these emotions out on his soccer group in a 59-20 beatdown.
A reunion that started politely shortly turned to catharsis, because the USC offense piled up yards and factors at will for the second week in a row.
After tallying 597 yards in its Week 1 blowout of Missouri State, USC moved the ball much more effectively in Week 2, racking up 755 yards, probably the most at USC in 20 years. They averaged 12 yards per play and ripped off a dozen massive performs of 20-plus yards.
USC receiver Ja’Kobi Lane stretches out to drag in a landing cross with one hand in opposition to Georgia Southern on Saturday on the Coliseum.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Instances)
And similar to final week, junior quarterback Jayden Maiava was content material to take a seat again and decide aside an inferior protection. He threw 4 touchdowns Saturday, whereas his 412 passing yards shattered his profession excessive earlier than the fourth quarter even started.
By that time, the Trojans had been as soon as once more trotting out their backups for a full quarter’s value of reps.
Ja’Kobi Lane and Makai Lemon, USC’s prime two receivers, didn’t catch any passes after halftime … as a result of they didn’t must. And Maiava via two video games has needed to play simply 5 quarters, and nonetheless has 707 passing yards and 7 touchdowns to point out for it.
USC’s speeding assault didn’t face a lot resistance both on Saturday. The Trojans racked up 309 yards on the bottom alone, the a lot of the Lincoln Riley period by a large margin. Waymond Jordan had 5 runs of 10 yards or extra on simply 16 carries as he completed with 167 yards. Eli Sanders added 55 extra and even walk-on King Miller broke away for an additional massive landing run, his second in as many weeks.
It wasn’t, nonetheless, a banner day for USC’s protection, which allowed Georgia Southern to maneuver the ball. The secondary had a number of breakdowns that led to massive performs for the Eagles.
However on a day like Saturday, when USC’s offense may do no matter it wished, it didn’t a lot matter.
Which is humorous, contemplating how the Trojans opened the sport. Riley couldn’t have drawn up a sloppier begin. Jordan, on his second carry of the day, fumbled. Then a nasty offsides penalty saved Georgia Southern’s drive alive and the Eagles linked on a 32-yard landing cross on the subsequent play.
Nonetheless, Riley went proper again to Jordan on the subsequent possession and the operating again delivered, as USC rolled down the sphere on a scoring drive behind 41 yards from the junior.
Lane punctuated the drive as Maiava lofted a cross in his course towards the top zone. Snarled with a Georgia Southern defender, Lane wanted only a single outstretched arm to drag down the Trojans’ first rating.
USC’s offense caught fireplace from there. The Trojans used two performs on their subsequent possession to search out the top zone. Then three performs on the drive after that. Each possessions ended with Lemon sprinting free for touchdowns.
The primary noticed Lemon slip two tackles earlier than weaving his means via the Georgia Southern secondary for a 62-yard landing. The second, Lemon merely turned on the jets and blew previous the Eagles’ protection with ease for a 74-yard rating.
It appeared USC would possibly depart Georgia Southern within the mud after that, just like the way it piled up factors every week in the past in opposition to Missouri State. However Helton’s group saved hanging round. They led 4 straight drives into USC territory, solely to come back up brief on three of them.
The Trojans’ firepower was merely an excessive amount of to deal with. USC led one other fast scoring drive, this time needing simply 4 performs earlier than tight finish Walker Lyons trotted in for a landing.
By halftime, USC already had 415 yards, greater than it tallied in six video games final season, whereas Maiava had greater than 300 passing yards and 4 touchdowns.
It solely bought extra lopsided after half. Jordan broke away for a 36-yard landing scamper. Sanders scored twice in 10 minutes of recreation time. Miller even bought in on the enjoyable.
Quickly sufficient, Helton was left to stroll again up the tunnel with a 39-point loss, whereas Riley had lots to smile about within the wake of one other seamless win, this time over his predecessor.
