The USC football team was expected to be one of the best teams in the country this season, but they were far from it. The Trojans ended up losing five of their final six games, and they finished the regular season with a 7-5 record. This team was expecting to go to the College Football Playoff at the beginning of the year, but they fell way short. The main issue for USC this season was the defense, and defensive coordinator Alex Grinch was fired during the season because of it. The Trojans have now hired D'Anton Lynn from UCLA to replace him, and he has a lot of work to do.

USC football had trouble stopping just about every team they faced this season as their defense was one of the worst in the country. One of their main issues was making tackles, and new defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn recently discussed how he plans to fix those issues.

“You have to emphasize fundamentals over and over and over again, and at all positions,” Lynn said, according to a tweet from Keely Eure. “It's something that you have to do all throughout the year, whether it's drills, whether it's showing guys good examples and bad examples on tape. It's something that has to be emphasized. And then, your team has to have that attitude too where they want to tackle.”

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If USC is going to take the next step next season, those tackling issues will have to be fixed. The Trojans came into this season with one of the best offenses in college football that included the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, and that still wasn't enough to have a top-25 team because of how bad the defense was.

To make things tougher for the Trojans, they will also be in the Big Ten next year, and those conference schedules are not going to be easy with the realignment. Every week is going to be a battle, and if you don't bring your A-game, you're going to be in trouble. If USC is going to find success next season in the new-look Big Ten, this defense is going to have to take some major strides in the offseason.