The USC Trojans will look to rebound from back-to-back losses this weekend as they host the Washington State Cougars. Kickoff is scheduled for 10:30 EST on Friday, September 21 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.
Oddsmakers list the Trojans as 3.5-point favorites at home. Click here to see a full list of this week’s college football odds.
The Trojans enter this game in the precarious position of being 1-2 on the season. After a comfortable but uneven win against UNLV in their season opener, USC has lost the last two weeks to Stanford and Texas, knocking them out of the top-25. To be fair to the Trojans, both of those games were on the road against good teams. However, they scored a total of 17 points over those two games. The Trojans were also shut out for the final three quarters against Texas.
The good news for the Trojans is that they don’t play another ranked team until they meet Notre Dame the final week of the season. But that doesn’t mean their Pac-12 schedule will be easy. They also can’t afford to fall to 0-2 in conference play, or 1-3 overall for that matter. Clay Helton needs to get things sorted out in a hurry.
Washington State, meanwhile, enters Friday’s game at 3-0. However, wins over Wyoming, San Jose State, and Eastern Washington haven’t been enough to impress the voters, as the Cougars haven’t climbed into the top-25. Nevertheless, the Wazzou air-raid offense is in full swing under new quarterback Gardner Minshew. The Cougars are currently second in the country in passing yards per game.
Adding an interesting element to this game is the fact that Washington State pulled off the upset over USC last season. That game also came on a Friday night and took place when the Trojans were ranked no. 5 in the country. The Cougars aren’t exactly the same team that won that game, but last season’s victory means Washington State will have no fear about playing the Trojans, as they’ll be expecting to win their Pac-12 opener.
USC may have the brand-name recognition, but I have to go based on what I’ve seen so far this season, and that’s a Trojans team that isn’t ready to compete and win games against power conference teams. USC may have more pure talent on their roster than Washington State, but they don’t look like a team capable of winning comfortably against a quality team. I’ll take the points and lean toward Washington State.
To be fair, we haven’t seen the Cougars get a true test, so it’s tough to gauge how good they actually are. However, they’ve taken care of business against three lesser teams, and that’s still worth something. The Cougars haven’t stumbled or stubbed their toe early in the season, so I still see them as an above-average Pac-12 team that’s capable of taking advantage of a young USC that’s struggled early in the year.
As mentioned, Minshew looks like the perfect fit for Washington State’s offense. He’s attempted over 50 passes in each of the first three games of the season and is still completing over 70% of his throws. Plus, the Cougars have a deep stable of wide receivers who have all looked like capable playmakers early in the year. Even without asking their running game for help, the Cougars have scored at will this season.
At times this season, the USC defense has played well, and there’s certainly no denying that the Trojans have talent on that side of the ball. However, teams like Stanford and Texas are more focused on running the ball. The Trojans haven’t faced a team like Washington State that’s going to put pressure on their secondary on almost every play. It’ll be a different kind of challenge for the USC defense, and I’m not sure they’re up to stop it for four quarters. To be fair, most teams aren’t.
Meanwhile, the USC offense is where the real concerns should be. The Texas defense is good, but the Trojans should not have been shut out over the final 45 minutes of last week’s game. The USC running game was almost non-existent against Texas, which can’t happen with a true freshman at quarterback. J.T. Daniels threw for over 300 yards against Texas, but he also had a rough game against Stanford, completing just 16 of his 34 passes. He’s clearly had some growing pains early in his career.
Again, it’s tough to judge Washington State’s defense based on three games against lesser teams. However, the Cougars have clamped down hard on those teams, which hasn’t always been the case for Wazzou in the past. Against a USC offense that’s young and struggling to find consistency, I think the WSU defense will be fine.
Admittedly, it’s tough not to lean toward USC at home with the spread barely over a field goal. But the Trojans clearly have some problems after a lopsided loss to a Texas team that’s also a work in progress. I’ll take a chance that Washington State’s dominance over lesser teams will translate somewhat against a team with USC’s talent. I can see the Cougars winning this game, but even if they don’t, I don’t trust USC to cover the 3.5-point spread.