You could not blame USC for wanting to flip the calendar from August to September.
"We were counting down the days," sophomore safety John Plattenburg said.
Even when game-day did arrive Saturday, the Pac-12 Conference and its TV network made the No. 8-ranked Trojans wait all day for an 8 p.m. kickoff.
"It felt like forever," Plattenburg said.
There was nothing like playing, though, to change a narrative of embarrassment and negativity.
USC would have picked Arkansas State up at the airport in a limo. It wasn't only the 55-6 final score that felt so good, either.