ANN ARBOR, Mich. —
It seemed, at first, like just the sort of old-fashioned Big Ten welcome that would have made Bo Schembechler swoon. Two defenses swarming to the ball. Two rushing attacks grinding away, one yard, two yards, three yards at a time. Two coaches wary of the forward pass. And in the wreckage stood USC, the new Big Ten team on the block, forced into a foreign style of football at the start of a new era.
This was not, however, the sort of game Lincoln Riley had hoped to wind up in for USC’s Big Ten debut, with his new quarterback under heavy attack and his new defense barely holding on from behind.