USC football: 3 takeaways from Trojans’ high-scoring win over Colorado

After jumping out to a 34-14 lead in the first half, USC football had to hold off a Colorado comeback on Saturday to win 48-41. Here’s what we learned from a huge Pac-12 shootout.

1. Coach Prime is not a gimmick

At halftime of this game, Colorado had been beaten in its previous six quarters of play by a score of 76-20. After a hot start to 2023, it seemed as though the elite competition in this stretch of the Buffs’ schedule had beaten them down and exposed some core weaknesses in Deion Sanders’ team.

Then the Buffs fought back.

Colorado outscored USC in the second half by a score of 27-14. Anthony Hankerson found paydirt in the third quarter, and Shedeur Sanders threw for three scores, including one with 1:43 left to bring the Buffs within a touchdown of the Trojans.

There was no shame in losing to Oregon, and there’s no shame in losing to USC. After winning just a single game a year ago, 2023 is already a success for Colorado. Their refusal to give up on Saturday showed just how much Deion has changed the mentality of this program.