USC Football: Trojans to take on rival UCLA at Rose Bowl

USC football looks to bounce back against the UCLA Bruins after falling to Cal for the first time in 14 years. Can the Trojans avert a skid?

So this might not be the most anticipated matchup between the Trojans and the Bruins but it’s still one of college football’s more popular rivalry games.

This year’s matchup is interesting in ways that are different than others and could even give the fans of both schools something to take note on while the clock runs down on Saturday. For starters, both teams will feature freshman quarterbacks with coveted quarterback recruits JT Daniels and Dorian Thompson-Robinson taking the field for both teams. Daniels reclassified and was heralded as the third-best quarterback in the class of 2018 behind Justin Fields and Trevor Lawrence and hasn’t done anything over the top this season. It’s hard to say that he is underperforming due to his joining over the Summer and being thrust into the starting role.

Wilton Speight began the season as the starting quarterback for the UCLA Bruins and didn’t exactly turn heads before leaving for a portion of the season with a spinal injury and that forced Dorian Thompson-Robinson into the starting role. DTR began his career as a starter with 254 yards and a touchdown in a loss. This was his second-best offensive output of the season. He battled multiple injuries to his shoulder for most of the season and looked really good against the strong Washington Husky secondary when he went for 272 and two scores in a game where they came up just short of the upset.

USC is currently 5-5 on the season while the Bruins are 2-8. The combined 13 losses are the most combined losses for these two Los Angeles teams in the history of this battle. Nonetheless, this is the 89th meeting between the two teams and they will once again battle it out for more than the victory bell. UCLA is on a three-game losing streak in this matchup and is dying to get a victory over their heated rival in Chip Kelly’s inaugural season. USC is one win shy of making a bowl game for the seventh consecutive season. This is likely the last chance they will get before they take on Notre Dame next weekend.

A cool thing to note about this game is UCLA’s stud tight end Caleb Wilson. Wilson began his career as a walk-on for the USC Trojans and opted to leave when Clay Helton came in and cleaned house, and that included his father Chris Wilson who is now apart of the Philadelphia Eagles franchise as a defensive line coach. With his father departing, he lost the money from the school he was receiving from his dad being apart of the staff and transferred to UCLA who offered him a full ride. During his time as a Bruin, he has 101 receptions for 1,428 yards and five touchdowns. He seemed to be on his way to a monster 2017 season with two games over 100 yards receiving before his season was ended against Colorado in week five due to injury.

What will this installment of the Battle for the Victory Bell hold for us?

Date: Saturday, November 17, 2018
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Location: Pasadena, CA
Venue: The Rose Bowl
TV: Fox
Live Stream: Fox Sports Go

Keys to Victory

UCLA has to be able to stop the run. The USC run game hasn’t been stellar all season long for the Trojans, but the sudden emergence of Aca’Cedric Ware over the last two weeks doesn’t bode well for the 112th ranked UCLA run defense. Offensively Joshua Kelley has to be the guy to win the game. If Kelley gets stuffed all game long then I’m not sold that Dorian Thompson-Robinson can win the game on his own.

USC’s path to victory is all based on the run game. Aca’Cedric Ware has had back-to-back rushing games and his game against California was impressive despite the loss. UCLA hasn’t been able to stop the run all season long and even though JT Daniels has a plethora of targets to throw to, Ware could change the game if he remains healthy. Joshua Kelley is most of the offense for UCLA and if the Trojans respectable run defense (57th nationally) can hold Kelley to under 100 rushing yards then they can increase their win streak to four and possibly keep Clay Helton in charge for another season.

Betting Odds

Points Spread: USC -3.5

Over/Under: 57

Prediction

This game won’t be pretty to watch in any sense of the word, but it will be competitive. USC needs to win to make a bowl and UCLA is trying to give fans something to look forward to in their final two games. The Trojans have better depth at most positions and the lack thereof has killed UCLA all season long. USC wins late.

Final Score: USC 27, UCLA 20