The fans were booing. The big guys weren’t tackling. The skill guys weren’t catching. The coach’s failures were hovering.
As USC took the field at the start of the second half at an angry Coliseum Saturday afternoon, the Trojans trailed Wisconsin by double digits amid the suffocating scent of here we go again.
Enter their tousle-haired, eye-blacked breath of fresh air.
Enter the antithesis of a modern-day college quarterback, a three-year backup who didn’t transfer, didn’t walk out, didn’t sell out.