USC Football: Ranking Trojans’ 2020 opponents by toughness

Count me as one of several people that thought the Arizona job would be a perfect fit for Kevin Sumlin and he would be winning 8-9 games annually and contending for Pac-12 South titles. He has gone 5-7 and 4-8 in both years that he has been at the helm of the program and 2020 is a huge year in terms of his future in Tucson.

Arizona has squandered the talents of quarterback Khalil Tate the last two seasons and he is no longer there and the job will be in the hands of sophomore Grant Gunnell who played well last season, throwing for over 1,200 yards and nine touchdowns to just one interception — he will be the leader for the Wildcats this season.

The defense will need to improve by leaps and bounds for the Wildcats to make a run for a Pac-12 South title and even a bowl game. Arizona won’t be able to keep up with the Trojans’ offense in this one.

I can almost copy and paste my comments about Arizona and apply them to UCLA. When Chip Kelly took the UCLA job, I thought that he would have the Bruins competing for Pac-12 championships in no time and it seemed like the perfect job for Kelly to return to the college sidelines.

So far, that has not been the case in LA.

UCLA has gone 3-9 and 4-8 in Chip Kelly’s return to the college sideline and they will need to show marketed improvement to justify paying Kelly as much as they do.

A lot of the Bruins success will be dependent on how Dorian Thompson-Robinson progresses heading into his junior year. He showed improvement from his freshman to sophomore year, but he will have to get that much better if the Bruins want to make a bowl game or more.

Like Arizona, the Bruins’ defense is going to have to improve a lot for the Bruins to be a threat in the Pac-12 South. I don’t believe the defense will be able to stop this Trojan offense.