USC football must get back on track against hapless Arizona Wildcats

USC football and Arizona are both bad teams, and for some reason, they’re playing each other this weekend. Avoid this game like the plague.

There are four Pac-12 after dark games this week, in Arizona State-Oregon State, Oregon-California, Toledo-Fresno State (welcome to the Pac-12, Fresno State), and, begrudgingly, this game. Before we do anything else here, because this is a preview, and I am going to write in at least some depth about this game, I’ll issue a warning as someone who has watched most of Arizona and USC’s first four games.

Do no watch this football game unless you absolutely have to. Unless you’re a USC fan, or an Arizona fan, this is the absolute worst possible option of all the late night games, and your eyes deserve better. For a full menu of great games, you can check out my binge-watch guide, but I’ll also give you a short blurb here. Fresno State-Toldeo is a legitimately good game, in a good environment. Oregon-Cal is interesting, with plenty of storylines. Even Arizona State-Oregon State has Herm.

This is not a good game. This is an awful cursed football game that no one should be subjected to. It’s unfortunate too, because this game was awesome last year! Sure there were a lot of stupid referee mistakes in the second half, but Khalil Tate was great, and fun! Sam Darnold was great and fun! It was a high scoring, watchable football game. This, is a husk of that.

Arizona seems to have completely forgotten how to run the football, and Khalil Tate, one of the most exciting football players in the entire country last year, has 23 rushes for 31 yards through four games. Noel Mazzone will never be forgiven for what he’s done. USC, inversely, is starting a 17-year-old at quarterback. Their awful playbook is no longer covered up by Darnold’s talent, and their defense is mediocre, at best. This is a bad football game between two bad teams. Here’s how to watch it, if you really must know.

Date: Saturday, Sept. 29
Time: 10:30 p.m. ET
Location: Tucson, Ariz.
Venue: Arizona Stadium
TV: ESPN2
Live Stream: WatchESPN or FuboTV

USC keys to the game

USC is quite a bit more talented than Arizona, so you’d think this would be a pretty basic gameplan, but USC lost to Texas by nearly 30 two weeks ago, scored three points against Stanford, and needed a blocked kick to beat Washington State last week. This team doesn’t know what it is yet, and while it is loaded with plenty of four and five-star players, they’re just not there yet. USC needs to get them there, while keeping their best player on defense, Porter Gustin, from being ejected from targeting again (he gets ejected for targeting a lot).

Arizona keys to the game

I’m going to put this in the simplest possible terms, just in case Noel Mazzone is reading this, so I can help him. Snap the football to Khalil Tate, and have him run as fast as he can to a part of the field where there are no defenders. Don’t make him pass down the field 44 times, don’t make him hand off to a running back, just let him run. Read options, RPO, and designed quarterback runs. That’s it. It’s that easy. Stop breaking Khalil Tate.

Betting Odds

Courtesy of OddsShark

Point Spread: USC -3
Over/Under: 59.5

Prediction

First things first, there’s no way on earth these offenses are hitting that over, and they wouldn’t do it if they had six quarters instead of four. This is going to be a sloppy, generally dumb game, filled with mistakes and offensive ineptitude. Arizona is going to keep trying to force Khalil Tate to pass for some reason, and USC is going to keep calling plays that haven’t worked all season long. The only thing that matters here is which will break first, and because USC’s is more talented than Arizona’s, I’ll trust them.

Final score: USC 28, Arizona 24