Fansided · Oct 3, 2025
Aspect from Illinois game needs to play role for USC during bye week
USC v Illinois | Justin Casterline/GettyImagesThe reason why there was a strong belief that USC would be able to beat Illinois on the road is due to how the Fighting Illini had looked up to this point in the college football season.
For those expressed concerns, however, the previous week against Indiana made it so that Illinois posed an elevated challenge.
This set up the potential for Illinois to have that much more motivation after being defeated by 53 points.
While the margin in the Trojan matchup against the Fighting Illini was not quite to that extent, there is a similar potential push factor to drive the USC staff and players during the bye week and into the preparation for Michigan.