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USC’s Playoff Hopes Come to Screeching Halt in Pac-12 Title Game

LAS VEGAS — At the end of a 59-yard run on USC’s ninth offensive play of Saturday’s Pac-12 championship game—a swerving, tackle-breaking sprint that should have convinced any last doubters about the deserving winner of the Heisman Trophy—Caleb Williams felt something unmistakably bad in his hamstring.

“You ever have an old rubber band?” Williams said, with a sardonic smile. “That’s kind of what it felt like.”

An old rubber band snapping. In the words of USC coach Lincoln Riley, his quarterback “popped a hamstring” on the play. It was the beginning of a cascading series of calamities that would wind up costing the Trojans a Pac-12 title and College Football Playoff berth.