It's unfortunate, but as Texas fans, we're better off this year, and years going forward, if USC is actually competitive in the Big 10. Riley is damned near 0-fer against any well-coached team that USC has played since his 2022 inaugural season. 0-3 against Utah. 0-2 against Oregon, 0-2 against UW, 1-3 against ND. Those games almost all factored into the playoff landscape.
This year, Riley bravely sought to eliminate one of those match-ups for his schedule by getting the Notre Dame game removed. I guess since his teams are so soft, it probably doesn't matter, but it would have been helpful to see Notre Dame have at least one other speed bump on their schedule besides Miami. Instead of a non-con that includes the domers, USC gets to play SJSU, Fresno State and Louisiana. Now, Fresno and Louisiana will actually field good teams in their conferences, but I doubt they'll handle USC. It would be funny, nonetheless.
In conference, USC finally plays Ohio State while also getting UW, Oregon, at Penn State, and at Indiana plus a few bottomfeeders. I see a path for 8-4 due to the soft non-con, but assuming the team still takes on the personality of its HC, the prospects of USC going more than 1-4 against their top 5 Big 10 opponents seem unlikely.
USC returns a lot on offense, but not a lot of it is high level NFL talent. The same is true on defense, where they look good on returning starts, but are those quality starts by difference makers? Overall, writers and analysts who have been by the USC lockerroom still claim a lack of "dudes" ready to start for them. The sentiments I've read and heard remind me a lot of what we had to hear from national guys during the Strong and Herman eras. I know Patterson is an excellent coach, but a DC in an offensively biased program run by a soft as pudding HC can only do so much. As to buying the guy out after another flop of a year? Good luck finding $80M+ between those couch cushions.