Lincoln Riley knows that when you coach at USC, you are dealing with high expectations from just about everyone else in college football. The Trojans are a football power, but even the best can be expected to slip up from time to time.

That's exactly what's happening at USC. The Trojans have lost two games in a row, including a heartbreaking 34-32 defeat to Utah Saturday on a last-second field goal. It's the third time in two seasons Utah has bested USC.

Now the head coach is making the case that his team has been negatively affected by the expectations thrust upon them.

“Everybody expects you to be good. Everybody expects that you can have a championship-caliber team,” Riley said following the game, per ESPN. “And when you're constantly trying to live up to those expectations, you can kind of fall away from maybe what puts you there in that position in the first place.”

Riley, who didn't make any players available to the media after the loss, said he felt like last year's team, which went 11-1 in the regular season, might have overachieved. He said this year's team might have been affected by the expectations that have followed.

Asked about those expectations and whether USC football has fallen short of them this season, Riley said the team has had to “fight to keep things on our terms.”

“We don't come in every single week talking about winning a national championship, going to the playoffs,” Riley said. “I don't know where that narrative starts.

“If you let the outside set expectations, you're always being measured up against that.”

USC sits at 6-2 on the season, with a road game coming up Saturday at California. The team also has two brutal matchups in November against top-10 teams Oregon and Washington.

This is already a disappointing season for USC football given these consecutive losses. Now we will see if they can fight through this adversity and still find success.