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LSU and USC's football paths cross on Sunday night, when they will meet in the Modelo Vegas Kickoff Classic at Allegiant Stadium to open their respective seasons. However, the two programs have been connected for the past few seasons through their head coaches.
Lincoln Riley and Brian Kelly both left their old schools — Oklahoma and Notre Dame, respectively — in the summer of 2021 to join USC and LSU as both schools attempted to get back to their title-contending ways. The experiment on each side has reaped good, but not great, results. Both have hovered in the bowl-eligible range, but below contender status in the beginner stages of both coaches' stints.
The two were eerily similar last season: electrifying superstar quarterbacks leading explosive offenses, while the two teams struggled to get any stops defensively. This offseason, both invested a ton of resources to put that trend to a halt. LSU hired former Missouri DC Blake Baker and USC hired former UCLA DC D'Anton Lynn to contracts both north of $2 million per season to be their defensive coordinators, according to ESPN's Adam Rittenberg.
“That's where you may drill down on the real similarities, the investment in the coaching personnel,” Kelly said. “This is a huge investment. USC has hired some of the best coaches in the country on defense, and it comes at a premium, and we've done the same here at LSU. You're trying to attract the best in the marketplace. So both have gone all in.”
“We've pushed all of our chips into the middle, literally and figuratively.”
LSU, USC to test new defenses in season opener
The spotlight will be on the defenses of LSU and USC when they meet in Las Vegas on Sunday night. That is the unit that has held both teams back under Brian Kelly and Lincoln Riley over the last few seasons, and both are looking to take the next step in 2024.
The USC defense, which was constantly scrutinized during the Caleb Williams era, will have the challenge of playing against Garrett Nussmeier and an LSU offense that is replacing a lot of production after the departures of Jayden Daniels and Malik Nabers.
On the other side, the Tigers defense will be tasked with slowing down Riley's genius and quarterback Miller Moss, who exploded for six touchdown passes in the Holiday Bowl last season and is looking to carry that momentum into 2024.
Both offenses are going to score — that's a given when these two take the field in recent years. However, it will likely be the defenses that decide the day with one or two big stops. Whichever team is able to come up with those will roll into the heart of the season with loads of momentum.
