2:46 a.m. ET
Paolo Uggetti ESPN
SALT LAKE CITY – Caleb Williams felt the salt on the wound. As the second quarterback answered questions after No. 7 USC’s first loss of the season — 43-42 to No. 20 Utah on Saturday night — he could still hear the fans cheering at a packed Rice Eccles Stadium.
“I hate losing,” said Williams, who oversaw 438 yards of offense. After the game, cameras showed him crying as he left the field. “I really hate it, so I had a little bit of emotion.”
The first loss of the Lincoln Riley era came in exactly the kind of game the Trojans expected, given their strong offense: a penalty shootout. But as errors and injuries piled up and Utah’s offense put up 562 yards, it became too much for USC to overcome.
“We didn’t play as cleanly as we wanted on all three sides,” Riley said. “It came down to whether they made another game or we made another mistake. We’ve been within an inch of it on a number of occasions, and quite frankly very close to walking away with it on a number of occasions.”
After USC led 21-7 in the first half and appeared to be in control of the game, Utah unleashed a 36-21 scoring run that culminated in a touchdown and a successful 2-point conversion by quarterback Cameron Rising, which took the Utes at 43:42 had 48 seconds left. Riley said after the game he believed USC had enough time to win the game, but the offense failed to cross midfield after time ran out.
“Up to the last second I thought we should have won the game,” said running back Travis Dye. “It’s a difficult pill to swallow.”
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On a night when USC’s offense was still 42 points, USC’s defense couldn’t keep up with the combination of rising and tight end Dalton Kincaid (234 receiving yards) and the Trojans suffered self-inflicted errors on both sides of the ball . These errors included many flags. The Trojans had 12 penalties for 93 yards, and while officiating was a much-discussed topic, Riley was reluctant to blame the loss on that alone.
“The lead was really bad tonight but we still should have won the game,” said Riley. “You’re going to have some nights where the calls don’t go your way, and they certainly didn’t tonight. That is not an excuse; it was just one more thing we had to overcome.”
USC (6:1, 4:1) also lost two important starters to injuries on Saturday evening. Both star wide receiver Jordan Addison and linebacker Eric Gentry walked out of the game with apparent lower-body injuries. Both returned to the sidelines without a pad, and Addison wore crutches. Riley didn’t offer an update either.
“We should definitely get it done,” Dye said. “It’s not a single guy that concerns this loss, it’s not a single call.”
The matchup against Utah (5-2, 3-1) had been highly anticipated, one Williams said was circled on his calendar well ahead of the season, one Dye said was personal as he saw the Utes in never beat Utah. It should be a benchmark for a Trojan team that hadn’t yet been tested by a ranked team, and in an ideal world for USC, it should be proof that this team could be made a legitimate contender overnight. Instead, the result left Riley and co. cooked and ready to get dressed again.
“I’m pissed right now because we lost,” Riley said. “S— I’m ready to go to practice now.”
Riley’s message after the game was to rely on experience. As he pointed out, he and some of his Oklahoma associates have been in that position before and don’t believe this loss will dictate the rest of the season.
When defenseman Nick Figueroa was asked how confident he was that USC could achieve all of its goals despite the loss, he didn’t hesitate.
“Extremely confident,” he said.
Riley expressed the same feeling. “If we handle this the way I think we will,” he said. “We have a real chance.”
Riley and the Trojans now head into a bye week still hoping for a Pac-12 conference title and more – but with no room for error.