USC Trojans Football Preview

Hello,

Today I'm previewing USC's 2011 football schedule. These blogs are so time consuming, this will probably be my last college football preview. I will be previewing the Dallas Cowboys probably soon. I will also do skeleton previews for the Bucs and 49ers. I'm excited to see how Josh Freeman will do this year, I'm expecting a big season from him this year. I wouldn't be surprised to see him with a Pro Bowl year.

This is USC's schedule.

Sat, Sept 3 vs Minnesota 3:30 PM ET ABC ESPN2
Sat, Sept 10 vs Utah 7:30 PM ET Versus
Sat, Sept 17 vs Syracuse 8:00 PM ET FX
Sat, Sept 24 @ Arizona State 10:15 PM ET
Sat, Oct 1 vs Arizona TBD
Thu, Oct 13 @ California 9:00 PM ET ESPN ESPN3.com
Sat, Oct 22 @ #16 Notre Dame 7:30 PM ET NBC
Sat, Oct 29 vs #7 Stanford 8:00 PM ET ABC
Fri, Nov 4 @ Colorado 9:00 PM ET ESPN2 ESPN3.com
Sat, Nov 12 vs Washington 3:30 PM ET
Sat, Nov 19 @ #3 Oregon 8:00 PM ET ABC
Sat, Nov 26 vs UCLA 10:00 PM ET

The Pac 10 added Utah and Colorado, both of whom are playing their first season in the now Pac 12. The conference was split into two divisions. The North Division has the California Golden Bears • Oregon Ducks • Oregon State Beavers • Stanford Cardinal • Washington Huskies • Washington State Cougars. The South Division has the Arizona Wildcats • Arizona State Sun Devils • Colorado Buffaloes • UCLA Bruins • USC Trojans • Utah Utes.

The first Pac 12 Conference Championship will be held on December 2nd. It will be played between the winners of the North and South divisions, "with the team with the best overall conference record as host to the event". (Thanks to wikipedia.org). With USC on probation they aren't eligible for the Pac 12 Championship Game or a bowl game this season. If the Utah Utes don't play in the first Pac 12 Championship that would be a major disappointment. With USC not allowed to play, Utah should be the cream of the South division.

USC plays in the Pac 12's South Division and will play all other 5 teams in their division. They also play 4 teams in the North Division, including the powerhouse Stanford Cardinal and Oregon Ducks. As usual USC plays an elite schedule. They also play preseason ranked #16 Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. I predict that the Fighting Irish will be over ranked as usual. I think at best Notre Dame is the 4th toughest team USC will play this season.

USC is dealing with a suspension because of issues stemming from Reggie Bush's time at USC. In spite of that they still have a lot of talent. USC will still be trying to win every game of course. But since they aren't playing for the BCS National Championship, their next goal is to probably derail other teams national title hopes. Also the Trojans can still be the AP National Champion. If they win all their games, they'll be hard to deny for the AP title. Even though I expect a good season from USC, it seems their biggest weakness is head coach Lane Kiffin. I don't have a lot of confidence in him nor do I trust him much.

USC plays their first three games of the season at home, in the Coliseum. This gives USC a solid shot to start off the season 3-0. Their first game is against mid-tier Big 10 team Minnesota. With Matt Barkley, freshman Marqise Lee and Robert Woods starring for the Trojans I don't see USC losing this game. Next they play the Utah Utes, this will be the Utes first Pac 12 game. Starting on the road in the Pac 12 is very scary, although the Pac 12 isn't the strongest conference in the nation. This will be a very interesting game as either team can win this game. USC will be playing for pride, how long does that sustain you? The Utes will be playing for respect to show they belong in the Pac 12. They definitely do and I predict Utah will show that this season.

Then USC closes out their 3 game home stand by playing the Orangemen of Syracuse. Syracuse plays in the Little East conference. That's a ridiculous conference that for some reason still has an automatic BCS bid. They still have that BCS bid in spite of their conference's mediocrity. TCU joins the Little East next year and I predict they'll dominate the conference for at least the next several years. If USC is playing at full efficiency they will dominate Syracuse. At worst USC will be 2-1 after their first three games.

For their next three games USC plays three mid-tier Pac 12 teams. They play at Arizona State on September 24th. Next they play back at home on October 1st vs. Arizona. Then the Trojans have a bye before going to play at Cal on Thursday, October 13th. USC traditionally suffers an upset each year against one of the lesser teams of this conference. It's possible that USC will lose one of these games. Although again if USC is firing on all cylinders I expect they will win all these games by double digits. I project USC to be 5-1 at this point.

After playing traditional rival Cal, USC goes and plays another traditional rival on the road. They play Notre Dame on Saturday, October 22nd. Although Notre Dame is starting off as #16 in the preseason, I expect by this point we'll see that the emperor has no clothes. Once exposed the Irish will be playing mainly for pride and a mediocre bowl game. Notre Dame's last good season was in 2006 when they finished 10-3. They were blown out in their bowl game that year though, LSU destroyed them 41-14. In fact, before Notre Dame won their last two bowl games, they had lost their previous 9 bowl games. Including their 2006 season, Notre Dame is only 34-29 over the last 5 seasons. USC should be playing well at this point and the Irish will want to knock them off. However I predict USC will prevail to move to 6-1 on the season.

USC returns home on October 29th to play #7 ranked Stanford. (If you're wondering Stanford plays Oregon on November 12th.) Stanford returns stud quarterback Andrew Luck, many people project him as the #1 pick in the next NFL Draft. (Dallas Cowboys you aren't going to be a very good team this year anyway, can you lose enough games to get that #1 overall pick?) He also has a solid chance to win the Heisman. From everything I've read he deserves his high reputation very much. USC could win this game, but I don't see it happening. USC will fall to a still very solid 6-2 record.

USC then finishes out both their regular and overall season by playing 3 mediocre or less Pac 12 teams. They also have to play a very tough game in that 4 game stretch. November 4th they travel to Colorado to play the Buffaloes. Their mascot is appropriate as they buffaloed the Pac 12 by being invited into this conference. Let's be honest teams are mainly invited for their athletic success, but when is the last time Colorado truly had athletic success? It's been over a decade! USC fully deserves their Pac 12 membership and will be 7-2 after this game.

On Saturday, November 12th USC will host Washington. This will be a battle of Pete Carrol disciples. Both head coaches Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin were assistant coaches under Carrol. Washington always plays well against USC, having won a couple of games over the last few years. I'm giving USC the edge here simply because they are playing at home, although Washington won at the Coliseum last season 32-31. There were questionable decisions made by Lane Kiffin. Kiffin ended the game with 3 time outs still at his disposal. Even if he wanted to let the clock run, couldn't he have called at least one time out to freeze the Washington kicker? I have a feeling that USC will lose at least one game due to Kiffin's poor decision making. I'll try not to think about it.

Then on November 19th they play at Oregon and I think this will be another loss for the Trojans. Oregon's explosive offense is very frightening. USC will now be 8-3. They'll then return home to play and beat UCLA to end their season at 9-3. I think that game will be Rick Neuheisal's final game at UCLA. (Thanks to wikipedia.org which I used liberally in writing this blog. Also thanks to youtube.com to watch the end of the USC-Washington 2010 game.)

9-3 isn't a terrible record, but it is for USC. Maybe USC will just have to settle for a rebuilding season in preparation for when they come off of suspension. Hopefully in a couple of seasons they'll challenge for a national title again.

themusicaddict