SALT LAKE CITY _ The sign at the entrance of Mount Olivet Cemetery is old and discolored. A significant percentage of the statues on the grounds are weathered.
On the other side of a chain-linked fence, across University Boulevard, USC buried what remained of their respectability.
The Trojans couldn't hold on to the football.
They couldn't stop the run.
And, in the end, they couldn't beat a considerably less-talented team in No. 24 Utah, falling at Rice-Eccles Stadium, 31-27.
"We lost this game," running back Justin Davis said. "Utah didn't win."
Coach Clay Helton will shoulder the blame for this defeat and rightfully so. Losing to a superior team such as Alabama or Stanford was pardonable. This wasn't. This was an embarrassment.
Every worst-case scenario is now in play for the Trojans, who are 1-3.
Finishing the season with a 5-7 record?
Entirely possible.
Not playing in a bowl game?
That can happen too.
What made the defeat especially painful is that the Trojans now have the relatively soft part of their schedule coming up. They host Arizona State, then Colorado. They travel to Arizona, then take on California at home.
A victory over the Utes could have provided them with some momentum. It could have been the start of a five- or six-game winning streak.
Instead of using that stretch to vault back into national prominence, the Trojans will be fighting to crawl back to .500.
And USC has only itself to blame.
The Trojans lost three fumbles in the first half, which is why they had only a 17-10 lead at halftime.
They effortlessly moved the football down the field on their opening drive, only for Davis to literally drop the ball. They were on the verge of breaking a 7-7 stalemate late in the first quarter, when quarterback Sam Darnold repeated Davis' mistake. They were marching into the Utes' half of the field early in the second quarter, when Ronald Jones turned the ball over.
Nonetheless, when Darnold helicoptered into the end zone with 9:48 remaining in the third quarter, the Trojans increased their advantage to 24-10.
The game should have been over.
The Trojans were the better team. They were faster. They were stronger. Whereas the Utes offense was almost entirely reliant on their running game, the Trojans were moving the ball both in the air and on the ground.
Somehow, they lost.
Utah quarterback Troy Williams, who passed for only 68 yards in the first half, was suddenly unstoppable. And with 16 seconds remaining in the game, Williams found receiver Tim Patrick on the right side of the end zone. Cornerback Adoree' Jackson lost his shoe and his footing on the play, which allowed the Utes to overtake them, 31-27.
The Trojans' final effort reflected the chaos of the second half, as Darnold scrambled around the backfield as precious seconds ticked off the clock. Darnold eventually delivered the ball to midfielder JuJu Smith-Schuster, who tossed the ball back to Zach Banner. The right tackle had nowhere to go and the Trojans were finished.
The Utes rushed the field in triumph. The Trojans doubled over in defeat.
This was a crushing loss not only for the team, but for Helton personally. Counting the final two games of last season, he is now 1-5 as the Trojans' full-time head coach.
His critics will only become louder.
In the days leading up to the game, Helton behaved as if he was aware of how much was at stake.
He made a controversial decision to drop Max Browne as the starting quarterback after only three games, even though Browne wasn't why the Trojans lost to Alabama and Stanford.
The call was the right one, as Darnold made his first collegiate start Friday night and immediately transformed the previously-stagnant USC offense.
Darnold was advertised as a superior runner to Browne, but he showed he was more than an athlete.
The kid can really throw. He can throw in the pocket and on the run. He can throw with a defender clutching his ankles.
Darnold completed 18 of 26 passes for 253 yards. He was sacked only once.
The dimensions Darnold added to the USC attack were apparent from the opening drive. On the second play from scrimmage, Darnold eluded two defenders in the pocket, rolled right, evaded another tackler and threw the ball away.
Darnold's ability to throw downfield opened up the running game for USC. The Trojans didn't have a 100-yard rusher in any of the previous games, but they had one by halftime, as Davis went into the intermission with 102 yards and a touchdown on six carries. Davis finished the game with 126 yards.
Darnold's performance confirmed the Trojans' problems weren't with the quarterback position, but something deeper, something more fundamental.
The national championships USC won under Pete Carroll have never felt more distant.
