USC Football: Trojans look to take control of Pac-12 South vs. Utah

USC football looks to take a firm hold to the Pac-12 South in a matchup against a surging Utah Utes team. Here’s everything you need to know.

This game is just as important as it usually but this year it’s just different. The Trojans made headlines with their reclassified quarterback JT Daniels drawing the start after a short period of time in camp and even though his numbers aren’t eye-popping he seems to be making a difference in key games.

The run offense doesn’t have settled starter and that may be hurting them more than its helping as the Trojans have fallen from the 39th best rushing offense in 2017 to the 112th best nationally this season.

They did pull out the victory last week against the No. 19 Colorado Buffaloes behind Daniels’ three touchdown passes. It wasn’t the prettiest of wins either with three turnovers and over 10 total penalties for the Trojans. In most games, if you read that a team had three turnovers and allowed 123 yards in penalties, you would usually assume that the team lost convincingly but the defense stepped up in a major way and rattled the impressive Steven Montez. The Trojans also went 2-for-10 on third downs against the Buffs which is something they can not do again this week.

The Utah Utes fell behind in the Pac-12 race quickly with back to back losses to both Washington teams but they’ve turned on recently and blew out Stanford on the road and Arizona at home. Tyler Huntley and Zack Moss have really gotten things going on the ground while the former has played efficiently in the passing game in the matchups leading up to this one.

USC Struggled against an offense very similar to this one at the start of the year in UNLV and the score of that game is very deceiving at first glance. Can the Utes notch a win over USC in pursuit of the top spot for the Pac-12 South?

Date: Saturday, Oct. 20
Time: 8 p.m. ET
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Venue: Rice Eccles Stadium
TV: Pac-12 Network
Live Stream Pac 12 Network or FuboTV

Keys to Victory

USC can’t rack up penalties again. If Steven Montez had looked at all like himself last week, the Trojans lose the game with that absurd amount of penalties. Utah doesn’t have the strongest units on either side of the ball but they know how to win games, especially in Salt Lake.

If USC strolls into Utah and gives up that many penalty yards, it will be a long night for Clay Helton and his staff. Also, both games that the Utes lost were games where Tyler Huntley was forced to pass. Focus on keeping Huntley in the pocket or he will torch this mediocre run defense all night long.

Utah needs to find success running the ball and take advantage of USC’s mistakes. For starters, USC has a minus-six turnover margin which is the 10th-worst in the nation. On top of that, they have given up the fourth most turnover yards in all of college football.

Kyle Whittingham admitted himself that his team has had its struggles early in the season but they’ve shown over the past several weeks that they’ve got moxie and can win the big games. Take advantage of these mistakes and for your own good keep the ball on the ground.

Betting Odds

Courtesy of OddsShark

Points Spread: Utah -5.5
Over/Under: 45.5

Prediction

This game is going to be close and really ugly to watch. Huntley will likely throw a bad pick and the USC defense will cost themselves a stop with a boneheaded penalty. In the end, Utah will have muh success on the ground and control the pace of the game from start to finish. Utah takes home the win.

Final Score: Utah 28, USC 18