The 2021 Pac-12 football schedule was unveiled Tuesday morning. The USC Trojans simply could not have asked for a better ride through the conference this fall.

Larry Scott has not done the Trojans any favors during his reign as the commissioner of the Pac-12. Therefore, it is ironic that in a football season when Scott will no longer lead the conference — he will be out by the start of July — USC finally received the red-carpet treatment Scott had denied the Trojans over the past decade. The last football schedule created during Scott’s tenure finally delivered to the Trojans what they felt they had deserved for a very long time… but never got.

What did Larry Scott fail to give to USC over the previous decade, before this 2021 schedule? Freedom from Fridays. USC had played at least one Friday game throughout Scott’s tenure… until now.

The 2021 USC football schedule finally represents “freedom from Fridays,” giving the Trojans their first Friday-free slate since 2009.

It’s ridiculous that it took so long for USC to have a Friday-free schedule. Alabama, Oklahoma, and other elite teams in other power conferences never have to deal with Friday games, but USC has had to endure such amateur-hour scheduling far too long under Scott.

This year, that nonsense finally came to an end. It shouldn’t have taken this long for the Pac-12 to figure it out, but for this year, the Trojans will take it.

Here is the full USC schedule for 2021:

Look at that. It’s beautiful.

Not only does USC play zero Friday games; the Trojans don’t play either Oregon or Washington. Their toughest conference road game by far is Arizona State.

In terms of what USC should do with this schedule — SHOULD, not will — the Trojans ought to go 11-1. If this program is meeting its expected standards of quality, only Notre Dame looms as a likely loss. Every other game ought to be tucked into the win column if USC football is getting the most out of its talent and resources, relative to the rest of the Pac-12.

In many ways, this is the perfect season by which to judge Clay Helton. If he can’t hammer this red-carpet, primrose-path schedule, it will be very obvious he needs to go. If USC goes 10-2 against this schedule — losing to Notre Dame and slipping up one time — that’s a reasonably good result, though not quite where the Trojans should be.

Anything less than 10 wins, however, will rate as an unambiguous and conspicuous failure.

This is a dream schedule for USC. It is the kind of schedule which simply cannot be squandered. Your move, Clay Helton.