After another comfortable USC victory last Saturday -- the fourth lopsided finish out of five straight wins to start the season -- running back Travis Dye struck a surprising tone.
He didn't want to relish in his two touchdown runs, quarterback Caleb Williams' impressive all-around performance, the defense's second-half adjustment or any of the highlights, really.
Instead, it seemed, the redshirt senior wanted to share a message publicly for the rest of the No. 6-ranked, 5-0 Trojans.
"I feel like we're slipping on the little stuff a little bit. We need to put our main focus on the little stuff and just realize that winning does not come easy. It's not something that you just get used to," Dye said. "You have to come in week in, week out with everything you have because you're going to get everybody's best shot -- that's just how it is. You go to USC with all this hype around it, you're going to get everybody's best shot."
He felt the energy level was not where it needed to be in the first half of that 42-25 win over Arizona State -- a point center Brett Neilon and linebacker Eric Gentry shared as well -- and he traced the roots back to the Trojans' practices leading up to it, where he felt the focus was not as sharp as it had been in earlier weeks.
"Some people don't know what it's like to lose on this team, so that can be a problem," Dye continued. "But we're going to get it right. We're going to get it right. We're going to make sure that our guys know that winning like this, it's very rare."
Certainly, there are many players on this roster, the holdovers from last year, who know all too well about losing, but Dye's point was that this team in its current construction, with the heavy influx of transfers and newcomers, has only experienced success during its short time together.
His comments became a talking point through this week, which was perhaps part of the intent, as the Trojans prepare for one of their toughest tests yet in hosting 4-1 Washington State on Saturday in the Coliseum.
The Cougars, who sit just one spot outside of the AP Top 25 poll, represent a significant challenge, especially considering that in its toughest game to this point USC struggled to get anything going offensively and needed a late rally to steal a 17-14 win on the road at Oregon State.
The Trojans survived that game, but that is not a sustainable formula, and it sounds like Dye isn't the only one trying to make sure the team realizes that is hasn't yet accomplished any of its goals despite the impressive 5-0 start.
"[OL coach Josh] Henson harps on that a lot. He says winning often dulls hunger," right tackle Jonah Monheim said. "He says a lot of teams he's been on, just winning in general, you look at the history of sports it can dull people day to day, week to week and that can't be what happens. You've got to stay hungry, you've got to stay relentless every day. Coach [Lincoln] Riley is talking about competitive nature, competitive stamina. This is a long haul, you've got to bring it every day."
Said left guard Andrew Vorhees: "I think [Dye] does bring up a very great point being that there's a lot of new transfers on this team, we're relatively young and new. I think that's definitely something that we need to not get caught up in, the early success, because you see college football, every week it's a battle."
Riley called it "the daily fight" he and his staff are trying to demand from this team.
"I mean, it is. I use the word fight because that's just the only way you get better. You've got to strain, you've got to get out of your comfort zone. It's a process to understand that, right? There's some of it you can learn before and we try to pack as much as that in as we possibly can. There's some it it's not going to take hold until you actually get in some of these situations as a team and individually," Riley said. "We have a team of guys from all kinds of different backgrounds and different experiences, so I agree with the comments. I think we're learning. We're starting to see you're going to get everybody's best every single week and every week's going to be a challenge and what you did in the previous weeks doesn't count and people aren't going to lay down just because you won some games. And it's not all of a sudden, you're not going to play so well and all of a sudden it becomes easy.
"Some people have said that to characterize really great teams or really great players sometimes it almost looks easy. It can look easy, but that's two different things. It's never easy. I've never had one win that was easy. You've got to strain and you've got to, you've got to be ready to fight every single week. We do have guys I think on differing sides of that -- whether it's guys that have been through seasons that went in other directions, whether it's guys that are new to college football, right? We've got a little bit of everything. We've said it a lot, right? It's the appreciation of winning because you do need to appreciate it."
USC fans certainly appreciate how substantially Riley has already turned around this program, from 4-8 and rudderless last year to 5-0 and considered a legit Pac-12 and College Football Playoff contender now.
But that's the point -- the actual goals are still well down the road for these Trojans, and whether they can play to their peak potential each and every week will ultimately determine how successful this season becomes -- 5-0 only matters until kickoff with a very good Washington State team Saturday (4:30 p.m. on FOX).
With that, it's time for the weekly TrojanSports.com Roundtable, as our staff weighs in with perspective on the storylines of the week and predictions for the game.
How would you size up the Pac-12 power rankings to this point?
Tajwar Khandaker: I'll go ..
1. USC
2. Utah
3. UCLA
4. Washington
5. Oregon
6. Washington State
7. Oregon State
8. Cal
9. Arizona
10. ASU
11. Stanford
12. Colorado
I see USC and Utah being neck and neck for the top spot as of right now; I could be persuaded to see it either way. Utah’s season-opening loss to a Florida team that hasn’t impressed all that much keeps them at No. 2 for now, but their next two weeks against UCLA and USC will offer the Utes every opportunity to prove their worth. UCLA’s numbers were fantastic across the board in the early season, but their lack of competition made it hard to verify how real it all was. Their performance against Washington last week made it clear to me that they’re legit. The Huskies themselves are still a very, very good team with an explosive offense and a talented front seven on defense; I still like them more than Oregon. Wazzu has been quite good, with its only loss coming by a hair’s breadth to Oregon. Down the board, Cal and Arizona have been better than expected, while Stanford and Colorado hold down the conference cellar.
Ryan Young: I cheated and went with tiers as I really can't separate the top teams just yet. But I do think it's pretty clear which tier each fits into. Here's how I break it down:
The contenders: Utah, USC, Oregon
The potential surprise teams: UCLA, Washington, Washington State, Oregon State
Hoping for bowl eligibility: Arizona, Cal
Lost causes: Arizona State, Stanford
Can we consider relegation?: Colorado.
I think the top tier is just three teams with Utah, USC and Oregon. The Utes have really only beaten one good team, but it was a thorough dismantling of Oregon State (42-16). I also give the benefit of the doubt to a program that has been so steady and successful under Kyle Whittingham. We all know the case with USC -- they probably have the highest upside of any team, but we have seen the offense go flat against a tough opponent (Oregon State) and it's probably still too soon put full trust in the defense. Oregon has kind of the same makeup -- a very potent, balanced offense and a defense that has major questions (in the Ducks' case, they are one of the worst pass defenses in the country).
UCLA, meanwhile, played four cupcakes before the impressive win over Washington and needed a last-second field goal to get past South Alabama. But the Bruins can vault up a tier if they beat Utah this weekend. Washington is ahead of schedule in Kalen DeBoer's rebuild and he looks like the real deal, Washington State does a lot of things well across the board and would be 5-0 if it didn't squander a 12-point lead in the final 4 minutes to Oregon, and I think the Beavers are a very well-coached team in general that had some unideal scheduling with USC and Utah back-to-back.
And on down the list. Colorado might be the worst FBS team of my lifetime and really doesn't even belong on the list with these other programs right now.
