USC Football: Trojans’ defense crushes Colorado

1. The PAC-12 South still runs through USC

The Trojans are the reigning PAC-12 South champions, and have won the division two of the last three years. With a true freshman taking the reins from third-overall pick Sam Darnold, expectations were tempered for the 2018 iteration of the Trojans.

After back-to-back humbling defeats on the road against Stanford and Texas, it looked like USC should be more worried about bowl eligibility rather than getting back to the PAC-12 Championship game.

It appears now that Clay Helton has righted the ship in Los Angeles as the Men of Troy have now reeled off three consecutive PAC-12 victories and reasserted themselves as the team to beat in the division.

USC travels to Utah next week for another huge divisional matchup. If the Trojans can knock off the Utes, their toughest conference games would be behind them with just Arizona State, Oregon State, California, and UCLA left on the slate.

All isn’t lost for Colorado as they are still very much alive in the PAC-12 South race, particularly if USC falls next week against Utah. The Buffaloes have a tougher schedule the rest of the way than do the Trojans, however, and they get no time to lick their wounds as they travel to Seattle to battle Washington in a week.