USC Football: 5 bold predictions for the 2017 season

The Trojans have big plans to return to West Coast supremacy in 2017. Here are five bold predictions for the upcoming USC football season.

Southern California enters 2017 with high hopes of regaining its position atop the Pac-12. The Trojans are now nearly a decade removed from the glory days of Pete Carroll. A conference championship has eluded USC since 2008.

But hope runs high on the strength of a breakout performance against Penn State in last January’s Rose Bowl. Sam Darnold is being hyped as a Heisman contender entering the year. But the crew around him has changed dramatically, as 10 starters from last year’s squad are now gone from the program.

Helton spent two spans of time as USC’s interim head coach before landing the full-time position. The first stint came in 2013, the year when Lane Kiffin was fired. Ed Orgeron took over the team, but he left before the bowl game when he realized he wasn’t going to be offered the position for the following year. Helton stepped in and coached the team to a Las Vegas Bowl victory.

The second time came two years later, when Steve Sarkisian was fired midseason and Helton went 5-4 in relief. He now enters his second full season as head coach with big expectations in Los Angeles. After watching Colorado, crosstown rival UCLA, and both Arizona schools play for the Pac-12 championship, the heat is on to produce now.

But will the Trojans actually realize their dreams? Check out our five bold predictions for USC in 2017.