USC Football: 3 takeaways from the Trojans’ win over Stanford

1.  Sam Darnold redeemed his Heisman value in Week 2

Quarterback Sam Darnold entered the 2017 season with a lot of expectations. In Week One, he met some of those expectations but his turnover prone habits seemed to keep his critics attention the most.

This week told a different story against the Stanford Cardinal. The USC Trojans football team came out firing on all cylinders and it was all thanks to Sam Darnold.

Darnold was 21-for-26 for 316 passing yards and four passing touchdowns. He also had two interceptions but his leadership in the win shined brighter than his turnovers.

He’s put them back in the talk for a possible berth in the College Football Playoff. It also shapes up for a perfect matchup next week with the Texas Longhorns.

It is their first meeting against Texas since there 2005 meeting in the Rose Bowl where the Longhorns won 41-38.

There’s a new head coach on both teams as well as completely different looks but the stakes remain the same. The Longhorns aren’t coming to Los Angeles to lose either.

Texas head coach Tom Herman has taken his fair share of criticism already after losing their season opener at home to the Maryland Terrapins.

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Next week’s matchup will be another interesting game in the evolution of Sam Darnold. Let’s see if he can go without throwing an interception in this one.