[TriangleTree]

with our history of beating USC at home over the last decade and a half, the USC game was actually a relatively gettable game for us

I thought that going into the game. Three things made me change my mind:
1) 20+ transfers including a Biletnikoff, Oregon superstar RB, and one of the (if not THE) best QB/WR combo in the country. No one may be able to compete with SC going forward in the free agent transfer market. 
2) An interview posted here with an SC blogger talking about the culture of accountability that's taken hold at SC. I normally don't buy much into these things, but somehow this one sounded convincing.
3) Watching the game. The offense looks like they should be playing on Sundays. The skill players were awesome of course, but the SC line just looked incredibly mature.

I don't know that we know that much about our team yet, we'll find out more in the next few games. 
Longer term,  I'm not sure we'll be able to compete with SC. If they're recruiting for proven CFB upper classmen with NIL money whilst we are looking at HS kids, we'll be playing in a different league. The silver lining is we may have less competition for the HS kids...

[TriangleTree]

with our history of beating USC at home over the last decade and a half, the USC game was actually a relatively gettable game for us

I thought that going into the game. Three things made me change my mind:
1) 20+ transfers including a Biletnikoff, Oregon superstar RB, and one of the (if not THE) best QB/WR combo in the country. No one may be able to compete with SC going forward in the free agent transfer market. 
2) An interview posted here with an SC blogger talking about the culture of accountability that's taken hold at SC. I normally don't buy much into these things, but somehow this one sounded convincing.
3) Watching the game. The offense looks like they should be playing on Sundays. The skill players were awesome of course, but the SC line just looked incredibly mature.

I don't know that we know that much about our team yet, we'll find out more in the next few games. 
Longer term,  I'm not sure we'll be able to compete with SC. If they're recruiting for proven CFB upper classmen with NIL money whilst we are looking at HS kids, we'll be playing in a different league. The silver lining is we may have less competition for the HS kids...