The 2023 college football season was supposed to be a breakthrough year for the USC football team, but it has been far from it. The Trojans came into the season with hopes of winning the Pac-12 and making the College Football Playoff, and a lot of people thought that they would achieve those goals. However, after starting the season 6-0, things have changed quite a bit. USC has now lost four of their last five games, and they are sitting at 7-4 with one game remaining against rival UCLA football. The Trojans need to win that one to finish the regular season on a high note.

A big struggle for USC football this season has been the defense. The Trojans have been able to score enough points to win most games, but it's hard to win football games when the defense can't get stops. Things got so bad against Washington that defensive coordinator Alex Grinch was fired after the game. USC came close to pulling off the upset in that one, but they lost 52-42.

Grinch needed to be fired, and now that the job is done, the USC defense has to start improving. Lincoln Riley believes that if they can find a little bit of momentum, they can bounce back quickly, according to a tweet from Shotgun Spratling. Riley mentioned the changes that UCLA was able to make on defense from last year to this year, and he thinks that this team is close to getting there.

The USC defense will get a chance to get some momentum going against the Bruins and their struggling offense. UCLA hasn't been able to find a consistent quarterback this season, and they aren't playing their best football right now. These teams strengths and weaknesses are opposite of each other, and it should make for an entertaining rivalry game.