COLUMN: USC aiming for more than 'revenge' in high-stakes rematch vs. Utah

A couple weeks after defensive end Tuli Tuipulotu proclaimed the Trojans were on their "revenge tour," settling scores with all the foes that had beaten (and in most cases embarrassed) the players who were part of the program last year, coach Lincoln Riley has told his USC team to shelve that narrative.

Even when it's perhaps most befitting this week.

No. 4-ranked USC (11-1) gets another shot at No. 11 Utah (9-3) on Friday in the Pac-12 championship game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, about seven weeks after those same Utes handed the team its only loss. Unlike the more tenured Trojans remembering the humbling losses to the likes of Stanford, Oregon State, Cal, UCLA, etc., last year, the entirety of this team felt the sting of that 43-42 heartbreaker after the Utes' bold two-point conversion call in the final minute.

But Friday isn't about what happened back on Oct. 15 in Salt Lake City -- it's about everything that has happened since to put the Trojans in this position.

"Coach Riley told the team to chill on the revenge stuff and just worry about ourselves, so that's what we're going to do," Tuipulotu said after practice Tuesday. "Just worry about ourselves because that's truly what we got to do is everybody focus on what they need to do to do their job."

The stakes are substantial for USC -- after moving up to No. 4 in the CFP rankings on Tuesday, the Trojans can surely clinch one of the four playoff spots with a win while No. 5 Ohio State sits idle after losing to Michigan last week.

After the Trojans finished off their 38-27 win over Notre Dame on Saturday, still waiting to see who they would be playing in the conference title game, Riley and several players dismissed any preference of getting another shot at the Utes, and he reiterated that Tuesday in his first comments since the matchup was set.