In 2016, USC was thought to have all the makings of a great team. They did in fact put together a great season that year. They won 10 games, made it to the Rose Bowl and defeated a good Penn State team. Normally this would have the Trojan fans remembering this as a banner year.
Except for one thing, USC was Alabama’s sacrificial lamb for the big first game of the season. In the Nick Saban era at Alabama, it has been Saban’s intent to open the season with a high profile good team once he got to start having input on the scheduling.