USC Football: 5 reasons the Trojans will beat Stanford for Pac-12 title

3. USC has its own stud tailback in Ronald Jones II

While much of the focus entering the Pac-12 championship game is justifiably on Stanford tailback Bryce Love, don’t sleep on USC’s own superstar in the backfield. Ronald Jones II, in his junior season, has put up big numbers of his own and could go blow for blow with Love on the stats sheet and the Cardinal front seven on the field.

When USC met Stanford last time, Jones carried the ball 23 times for 116 yards and two scores. He didn’t put up as much yardage as Love in that game, but Jones was nevertheless as instrumental to the Trojans win over the Cardinal.

Over the course of the regular season, Jones put up at least 100 yards in eight of the 11 games in which he played. Though he was injured earlier this year and missed the win over rival California, Jones hasn’t lost his ability to pound the rock and keep opponents playing defense for long stretches of the game.

If Jones puts up another strong performance for the Trojans on Friday night, it will keep the Cardinal defense on its heels and provide just the sort of balance that will be required to win a second straight over Stanford.