College football: Biggest Achilles’ heel for every Top 25 team

College football 2018: Biggest Achilles’ heel for every Top 25 team

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 08: Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (13) celebrates and holds up the CFP Trophy after the College Football Playoff National Championship Game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs on January 8, 2018 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

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Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images /

15. USC

Achilles’ heel: Newfound instability at quarterback

Disappointing would likely be the best moniker for the 2018 season if you’re a fan of the USC Trojans. With the hype train running absolutely wild about Sam Darnold heading into last season, everyone seemed to think that this team had a chance to compete for a National Championship. As they struggled early, those hopes seemed a bit unfounded and, ultimately, that proved to be the case.

Part of the letdown year was undeniably the fact that Darnold has his issues last year. He turned the ball over a great amount, something that he didn’t do the previous season when he took over as the starter as a redshirt freshman and led the Trojans to Rose Bowl victory. At the same time though, there’s also no denying that Darnold was still a playmaker and stabilizing force in many clutch moments last season.

While this offense at USC is undoubtedly going to be led by running back Stephen Carr — who has his own big shoes to fill with Ronald Jones II now in the NFL — the biggest question mark about the Trojans is what’s going to happen at quarterback with Darnold gone. Even with his struggles last season, it was always his job and he was the leader. Such certainty is nowhere to be found in 2018.

Perhaps one of JT Daniels, Matt Fink or Jack Sears is able to establish themselves firmly as the No. 1 quarterback on this team. However, prior to Darnold, we saw USC mired in mediocrity largely because of their indecisiveness and lack of stability at quarterback. And with Darnold gone, they could be in that position once again.