USC football: 5 best seasons in Trojans history, ranked

John McKay wins his first national title with USC football in 1962.

John McKay won four national titles in his illustrious coaching career at USC. Though he later became famous in NFL circles for coaching the atrocious Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976, his Trojans dominated out on the West Coast in the 1960s and early 1970s. The first team of his we have to talk about today is the 1962 team that went undefeated.

USC went 11-0 that fall, going 4-0 in AAWU play. After starting the year out unranked, USC would climb all the way to No. 9 after beating the No. 8 Duke Blue Devils at home in Week 1. USC beat three ranked teams that year, including the No. 9 Washington Huskies at home and the No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl.

The USC defense shut out its opponents in three of its games, holding the opposition to under 10 points on eight occasions. This USC team put at least 30 points on the board four times and scored at least 25 points in six of their games. In total, the Trojans outscored the opposition 261 to 92, helping them procure No. 1 rankings in both the Coaches and AP Polls.

This was USC’s first 11-win season and its second perfect season. USC has only had four perfect seasons in school history and two of them were coached by McKay during his heyday. Led by future College Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Hal Bedsole, USC won its first national title since 1939 and the first of the magnificent McKay era in Los Angeles.