A day after his Trojans took their most painful loss of the season, a 62-33 defeat at home to rival UCLA, USC interim head coach Donte Williams held his weekly Sunday night Zoom call with reporters.
There weren't necessarily any more answers to be gleaned as to why this season has unraveled as it has for the 4-6 Trojans, but there were certainly plenty more questions lobbed at Williams.
Veteran center Brett Neilon had suggested after the loss that "maybe it's just the culture that's been established here," as to why this team is struggling so much while showing so little indication that it can be turned around before this season mercifully ends.
Williams, of course, didn't create the culture within the USC football program -- whatever it is at this point -- and certainly shouldn't be expected to fix it on the fly after being thrust into the interim role in mid September. He's been vocal about trying to affect more accountability from the players and has clearly tried to make changes from the status quo, but that it hasn't materialized is far less a reflection on him as it is on the state of the program he took temporary custody of these last couple months.
So the question asked to Williams on Sunday night was more about the future and, with regard to Neilon's culture comment, what changes need to happen within USC football moving forward to address whatever deep-rooted issues exist.
"You know what, it’s hard to put my fingers on. Because like you say, it’s hard to change culture during the middle of the season. You change something at a program culturally, it usually takes about two years," Williams said. "Anybody their first year, when they try to go to a place and change the culture, it never really happens. That’s why the first year records usually aren’t what you expect. It’s usually Year 2 and Year 3 when the turnaround happens. Just, you know, the biggest thing when it comes to culture is people being on the same page. That’s tough. Especially what we endured, last year was COVID so it was hard to bring new coaches together. It was hard for us to truly mesh because of what was going on with COVID. It was hard for us to be around the players and vice versa.
"This year, you’d like to have a change, but you make a change right in the middle of the season, things are an obstacle. You never got the chance to grow in the spring or the summer or even fall camp in things in the way you want them to be done. All we can do is continue to try and push forward and change the culture in the right direction."
With regard to the need for "people being on the same page," Williams was then asked if it's fair to say -- during a season in which all of USC's losses have come by at least 14 points and coming off a game in which the Trojans matched the most points they'd ever allowed to any opponent in their history -- that there are segments of the roster that just aren't responding to the coaching at this point.
"For one, even if it was, I would never ever ever put something on a player. Everything is always my fault first, then it goes down from there," Williams said. "Even if it was something like that, I wouldn’t ever comment on that, and I don’t think that’s the issue. Once again, it’s so many of us that we all have to push together in the same direction."
Williams has received some fair criticism for his messaging at times and how he's handled certain matters this season -- namely the questionable QB rotation vs. Arizona and Arizona State -- but this was absolutely the right response from a guy who is not only the interim head coach but also hopes to be part of the change moving forward under the next head coach.
Maybe it was an unfair question, but at this point, with USC careening toward possibly its worst season in 40 years if it doesn't win another game, all that remains for this season are questions.
"Everyone is frustrated. When you’re not getting the right result, I mean, you’re going to be frustrated, especially when you go out there, you put all the work in to hopefully get results, but at the same time, this is one of those sports where you have to be willing to give your all without any kind of guarantee of success. All we can do is continue to try to push forward, to control the process and do what we need to do to continue to get better so the result can change," Williams said.