Donte Williams looks like a real USC football coach candidate after Washington State victory

USC football’s win over Washington State was just what the doctor ordered with interim head coach Donte Williams winning over a lot of fans.

USC has already made the mistake of hiring an interim head coach. Now is not the time to overreact to a victory over lowly Washington State…

But it sure was fun to watch Donte Williams lead the Trojans to a comeback victory in Pullman.

The interim head coach opened his 10-game tryout with an encouraging win that makes him look like a much more viable coaching candidate.

Jaxson Dart and Donte Williams turned USC around vs. Washington State

The game started ugly and resembled the Clay Helton era far too much. Things got worse when Kedon Slovis went out injured and true freshman backup Jaxson Dart committed two turnovers while the defense looked incapable of stopping the Cougars’ attack.

Williams did something Helton struggled to accomplish. He took a rough start and turned it around. USC exploded with four touchdowns in the third quarter as Dart found his stride.

Those who haven’t watched much Trojan football over the past six years can’t appreciate the momentousness of that quarter. Under Helton, USC routinely failed to score anything coming out of halftime. Under Helton, the Trojans almost never pulled away from a lesser opponent. Under Helton, the most fans could have hoped for was a tight victory after a late comeback.

The fact that Williams pulled that performance out of this team was huge. It was a Pete Carroll impression of sorts, overcoming a slow start to thrash the opposition, never letting up until the final whistle. It was a long-awaited performance.

Williams isn’t qualified to take over as USC’s permanent head coach. The Trojans shouldn’t fall back on sentimentality again. However, the best thing Williams can do is to force athletic director Mike Bohn to consider him. That’s what he achieved in his first game. He has nine more to build his case.

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