It felt, at the time, like a big-time gut check for the new Big Ten team on the block.
USC left Ann Arbor, Mich., last season battered and bruised, its narrow September loss to Michigan having laid bare one of the program’s most pressing concerns upon joining the Big Ten. In a physical, old-fashioned Big Ten battle, Michigan simply looked bigger and stronger at the line of scrimmage, while the Trojans looked largely overwhelmed.
“That’s about as tough as it’s going to get,” coach Lincoln Riley said at the time.
But a year later, after an offseason focused on fortifying the Trojans’ fronts, Riley is feeling more confident ahead of Michigan’s return trip to the Coliseum on Saturday.