The Sports Brewery

Previewing The Pac In 10 Days – #3 USC Trojans

Posted on 01. Sep, 2010 at 4:41 pm by bbryan in Beer + Stuff, Football, NCAA Football, PAC-10 Football, USC Trojans Football

Over the last 10 work days leading up to the start of the season we will be previewing the Pac-10 in reverse predicted order of finish. Previous reviews can be found here: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4

Last Year: 5-4 T5

The Good - Out of all the sophomore starting quarterbacks in the Pac-10 (and there is 8 of them) I believe Matt Barkley is the most talented.  Barkley had a 60% completion rate as a freshman last year, which is very good.  However he also completed a few too many passes to the other team with 14 interceptions.  If he’s able to cut back on that number of interceptions and make a few more plays down field all while keeping his same completion percentage then this offense will be very good.  New defensive coordinator (and coaches daddy) Monty Kiffin is one of the best defensive minds in football and should help shore up a defense that took a step backwards last year.  As always, USC will anchor their defense with a strong front seven, led by stud defensive tackles Jurrell Casey and Christian Tupou.  All 3 starting linebackers return to fill out what should be a formidable defense.

The Bad - USC is very inexperienced, particularly at wide receiver, offensive line and the defensive backfield.  Also, Head Coach Lane Kiffin is a bit of a question mark.  While his Tennessee team showed some promise last year, he still carries the stink of being with the Raiders on him.  It has yet to been seen whether Kiffin has what it takes to be a big time college football coach.

The Skinny - There’s not much seperation between the top 3 teams in the Pac-10 (USC, Oregon, Oregon State) and I wouldn’t be surprised if any of those three finish in first place.  All three are very talented, but have at least one major question mark.  USC is an exceptionally hard team to judge.  During most of the off season I had them on top of my Pac-10 powerpoll.  However I’ve had some second thoughts on them as Oregon & Oregon State both have something that the Trojans do not, a trip to the Rose Bowl on the line.  It’s no question USC has the most overall football talent than anyone else in the Pac-10.  But between having no bowl game, and having the unproven Kiffin as head coach I can’t pick them as Pac-10 champs. I wonder if Snoop will still be making an appearance now that Rose Bowls and National Championships are out of the question.

The Prediction: 6-3

Tags: Oregon Ducks, Oregon Ducks Football, Oregon Ducks Opponent, pac-10 football, Pac-10 football preview, USC Football, USC Football preview