The Times of Troy: A look at some of USC’s brighter moments in 2024

Hello, my name is Iliana Limón Romero, and I’m the assistant managing editor for sports at the Los Angeles Times. I’m filling in for Ryan Kartje, our USC beat writer, who is taking a break from newsletter duties while preparing Christmas with his family, monitoring transfer portal traffic, gearing up to cover USC’s bowl game and charting the progress of the Trojans’ basketball teams.

I know it’s been a tough year for USC fans, who wish the Trojans — and not the Oregon Ducks — were preparing to host a College Football Playoff game at the Rose Bowl. But it hasn’t been all bad for USC. Here’s a look back at some of most memorable USC stories from 2024:

1. JuJu Watkins and No. 7 USC hold off No. 4 Connecticut to win in a thriller

HARTFORD, Conn. — In a marquee matchup Saturday night, No. 7 USC defeated perennial powerhouse No. 4 Connecticut 72-70, avenging its Elite Eight loss to the Huskies in April and strengthening its status as one of the nation’s elite teams.

2. ‘Like a zen thing’: How USC’s Eddie Czaplicki became college football’s best punter

A light rain fell over the Rose Bowl on Saturday night as Eddie Czaplicki took his place just behind USC’s 45-yard line. He didn’t expect to be needed, not with USC driving early in the fourth quarter against UCLA. But an ill-timed, third-down sack had knocked the Trojans out of field-goal range. Now it was up to the best punter in college football to salvage the situation, like he had so often all season.

It was a critical moment in the crosstown rivalry, with the Trojans trailing 13-9, in need of a spark. But a familiar calm settled over Czaplicki. He took a deep breath, caught the snap, then sent the kick soaring toward the goal line, where it bounced once at the five-yard line, landing softly in the arms of receiver Makai Lemon at the one.

It was a perfectly precise punt, in the final stretch of a near-perfect season of punting. Back at midfield, Czaplicki put his palms together and bowed his head. “It was,” he said later, “almost like a zen thing.”

3. Potential No. 1 NFL draft pick Caleb Williams’ top moments at USC

Since he first arrived in Los Angeles, the conversation around Caleb Williams has failed in many respects to capture the quarterback’s true nature. Every aspect of his identity — including his painted nails, his name, image and likeness portfolio, and his propensity for crying after losses — has been picked apart by an endless stream of analysts and anonymous scouts. The takes surrounding the quarterback have veered off track, creating a polarizing loop as he prepared for the NFL draft.

During two years of highs and lows at USC, Williams offered glimpses of who he is as a quarterback, with the weight of a proud program on his shoulders. There were stunning displays of near-supernatural talent as well as growing pains. Williams likely did enough to help convince the Chicago Bears to draft him with the No. 1 pick on Thursday night.

The Times looked back at some of the most telling moments of Williams’ Trojan tenure to clear up who Williams is and could possibly be as an NFL quarterback.

4. The secret to USC running back Woody Marks’ career-best year: acupuncture

The needles never bothered Woody Marks. Mostly because he never looks at them. All USC’s star running back knows is every Wednesday his acupuncturist will put them in whatever muscle has been aching that week.

“I just close my eyes,” Marks says, “and let him do it.”

5. How Jayden Maiava remained ready to seize the USC quarterback job

The competition was close. Closer than anyone expected it to be in late August, at least. Close enough that Jayden Maiava, the insurgent transfer from Nevada Las Vegas, believed at the time that he’d done enough to be named USC’s starting quarterback.

The job ultimately went to Miller Moss, the redshirt junior whose six-score coronation had come months earlier at the Holiday Bowl. Maiava had understood in that case the uphill battle he faced in coming to L.A. But the decision, while no surprise to the public, was no less disappointing to Maiava.

He was competitive. He thought he’d made the best of his reps. Now there was no way of knowing when they’d come again.

6. Inside the 30 frenzied days it took Eric Musselman to revive USC men’s basketball

By the time Eric Musselman had a moment to take stock of his new roster this spring, there wasn’t much team left for the new USC coach to evaluate. Three players had departed for the draft. Six more hit the transfer portal.

By mid-April, Harrison Hornery, the stretch-four from Australia, was the only scholarship player left for the new coach to inherit. Hornery averaged 3.3 points as a junior.

Mass exodus isn’t out of the ordinary in this uncertain era of the transfer portal. But the barren state of USC’s roster would make for a particularly daunting start for Musselman and his staff, who essentially had a month to piece together an entirely new team with transfers who entered the portal.

7. How USC women’s basketball rose from the Pac-12 basement to become champion

LAS VEGAS — The Trojans weren’t the only ones leaving MGM Grand Garden Arena as major winners Sunday night.

Amid the celebration of USC’s first Pac-12 tournament title since 2014, a fan shouted at USC forward Rayah Marshall that the Trojans, 8.5-point underdogs to top-seeded Stanford, had just won him $10,000. Marshall shouted back: “Fight on!”

“We’re in Vegas,” the junior said afterward. “Anything is possible.”

But USC‘s rapid rise from forgotten powerhouse to Pac-12 champion is not just a lucky run. Third-year coach Lindsay Gottlieb has been stacking up wins behind the scenes, from recruiting to strength and conditioning, that Marshall credited as “a culture shift” leading the Trojans back into the national spotlight.

8. USC’s Sweet 16 game changer: Meet the coach training the Trojans to go the distance

The best recruit in the country has lived up to every ounce of hype. The Ivy League transfers have made the transition look seamless. But even as a new-look roster led USC to its first Sweet 16 since 1994, head coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s most critical offseason acquisition might be the coach leaning over a black clipboard at the end of the bench.

Kelly Dormandy is the muscle behind USC‘s resurgence.

The first-year director of sports performance is a culture-setting strength coach, mad sports scientist and vocal advocate for her athletes. On-court coaches have NCAA-mandated limits on how many hours they can spend with athletes during the offseason, which often makes strength coaches the staff member whom players are around most frequently. They are almost as responsible for setting a program’s foundation as the head coach.

Times of Troy programming note

Ryan will be writing about USC’s Las Vegas Bowl appearance and any transfer news, but he is taking a brief holiday break from The Times of Troy newsletter. His next newsletter will be delivered on Monday, Jan. 6.

If you have any questions you want him to address in the next edition of the newsletter, please email him at ryan.kartje@latimes.com.

And thank you for your support of The Times of Troy. It’s a relatively new addition to The Times’ sports newsletter family and we’re thrilled people are reading it. Happy holidays.

What I’m Watching This Week

In the spirit of the holidays, your fill-in host offers her three favorite Christmas movies:

1. “Die Hard.” It is, in fact, a Christmas movie and remarkably rewatchable thanks, in part, to Bruce Willis’ flawless comedic timing.

2. “Love Actually.” People seem to either love or hate this movie and I fall squarely in the love department. It’s a golden oldie.

3. “Elf.” Will Farrell’s earnest commitment to his character always makes me smile.