Interim head coach Ed Orgeron has his work cut out for him. (Neon Tommy)

The two-year stretch, beginning with the Trojans 50-0 win over UCLA in 2011 and ending last Sunday when Lane Kiffin was finally fired, was one of the most embarrassing stretches ever for USC football. Pat Haden made a clean break from this era when he fired Kiffin at LAX last Sunday morning. While this firing was the first stretch of positive news for the Trojans in ages, the reality is that situation for 2013 could still be grim.

Only five weeks into the season, the Trojans face an uphill battle on the road to qualify for a bowl game. Throughout the earliest and easiest part of the schedule, the Trojans are 3-2 and a woeful 0-2 in the Pac-12.

The schedule gets a lot harder from here as the Trojans continue to face a tough Pac-12 slate. There are no more games against the dregs of the Mountain West Conference. Instead, the Trojans will face 3-1 Arizona followed by a visit to Indiana to take on Notre Dame. After that it’s an easier game against Utah followed by a brutal three-game stretch that will take the Trojans to Corvallis to take on Oregon State and includes a game against the Stanford Cardinal, the fifth ranked team in the country.

It doesn’t help that the Trojans have plenty of question marks on both sides of the ball. Prior to the Arizona State game it was assumed that USC was a team with a woeful offense and a brilliant defense; A defense that could keep them in low scoring games against quality opponents. It’s impossible to say that that characterization is still accurate after last Saturday.

In their first game against a competent quarterback, the Trojans defense got shredded. Taylor Kelly threw for three touchdowns and 351 yards and Marion Grace caught two touchdowns for ASU. The Sun Devils had an absurd 612 yards of total offense and they tied the record for points scored on the Trojans. The Trojans offense played from behind for much of the game and Cody Kessler was relatively ineffective yet again, throwing two bad interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.

Interim head coach Ed Orgeron now faces the tough task of trying to fix the Trojans on both sides of the ball before their next game on Thursday against Arizona. It’s a task made even harder because the Trojans currently have only two healthy wide scholarship receivers after Marqise Lee went out with a sprained knee last Saturday against Arizona. It will be up to Cody Kessler and receivers Nelson Agholor and Victor Blackwell to move the ball down the field on Arizona.

Still, Orgeron is approaching the task with plenty of enthusiasm. The Trojans had a very energetic week of practice and the players that are still on the field seem to be responding very well to having a new leader. “All he did was light another fire for us to get better,” Agholor said after practice this week. “He’s going to do a great job building this team.”

Orgeron certainly faces a tough road in doing so. We’ll see if he can keep his enthusiasm level high as the Trojans’ opponents get even tougher in the next month.

Follow Staff Reporter Russell Simon on Twitter.