USC Football: 3 bold predictions for Pac-12 title game vs. Stanford

3. Bryce Love runs for 150-plus yards and two touchdowns

Bryce Love is one of the most entertaining players in the country. The junior tailback from Wake Forest, N.C., has to be a Heisman favorite alongside Baker Mayfield, the Oklahoma Sooners’ quarterback.

Love is all class and the 5-foot-10, 190-pound running back has proven his toughness. He has played with an ankle sprain for weeks, even missing the Oregon State game in October. With improved Pac-12 defenses he still managed to rush for over one 100 yards in all but one game, that was against the Washington State Cougars. The Cougars have one of the top 25 defenses in college football and the hottest young defensive mind in the country, Alex Grinch.

The junior is going to get his yards. In the first meeting, he ran for 160 and a touchdown. At this point in the year, his body has taken a lot of hits but I can’t see him not showing out for the conference title. Love will break the 150-yard mark and score two touchdowns.

Southern California’s defense has been described as “Mister Softee” by the podcast duo The Solid Verbal. The unit is ranked 56th by the the S&P+ and Love may cause it to drop even more.

With Costello providing a spark to the passing game in the second half of the Notre Dame win, that will wide defenses out of the box as they can no longer play eight men inside the box. That will allow Love and the multiple tight end and fullback sets to create more gaps and the Trojans will have to honor the pass and run this time around.