I didn't notice the difference but there are a few possible reasons. They could feel it gives them more room to run off or outside the tackles. Could be to suck in part of the back 7 to give the WR's more room to work. Could be to offset USCe's smaller, quicker interior DL's.
Generally you don't want wide splits when the DL is a lot quicker than your OL. Unfortunately UT's OL didn't bully them in the first half either. They should have been able to get their hands on those DL's and re-establish the LOS in the laps of their LB's. It was better in the 2nd half but still not what you'd want to see from this OL.not my area of expertise but I thought maybe it was an approach of bunching defenders into a smaller area and a belief we could overpower them physically.
Generally you don't want wide splits when the DL is a lot quicker than your OL. Unfortunately UT's OL didn't bully them in the first half either. They should have been able to get their hands on those DL's and re-establish the LOS in the laps of their LB's. It was better in the 2nd half but still not what you'd want to see from this OL.