Back in August, USC was a heavy favorite to win the Pacific-10 Conference and compete for the national championship. In fall camp it wasn’t a question of how many wins the Trojans would rack up, but how big the margins of victory would be along the way.
USC’s season has, much like that of many other top college football programs, not gone precisely to plan. Close games against worse opponents? Check. A loss to a team that’s lodged firmly near the bottom of the national ratings (in USC’s case, an upset from Stanford in Los Angeles)? Check. Proof that the Trojans aren’t infallible? Check.
Though they are still ranked in the top 10 – providing the first ever matchup of two top-10 teams in Autzen Stadium history – the No. 9 Trojans have many questions going into the game, specifically because of injuries.
The highest-profile of them is the broken finger on the throwing hand of senior quarterback John David Booty. Suffered in the Stanford game, the injury has kept Booty on the sidelines the last two weekends and has a very good shot at making Saturday’s matchup at Autzen a third.
“We’re trying to get (Booty) well, and if he can take the work and then come back and play the next day, then he’s moving forward,” USC head coach Pete Carroll said on USC’s Web site. “We know that if he practices hard today, throws the ball and then can’t respond, then he’s not ready; if we play him in the game he won’t be able to respond the next week, as well.”
This means redshirt sophomore Mark Sanchez will continue as USC’s starter in Booty’s place. Sanchez has thrown for 388 yards and five touchdowns in his four games this season, though 235 yards and four of the touchdowns came last week in the Trojans’ 38-0 rout of Notre Dame.
It isn’t only the quarterbacks that are banged up for the Trojans right now. Though Carroll knows that his team has suffered – especially the offensive and defensive lines, with the offensive side having “12 guys on the injured list,” – he feels that “We’re getting better and getting stronger.”
“You can just feel it,” Carroll said. “You can feel it in the meeting room, you can feel it on the practice field and you can feel it on game day.”
Though the Trojans have struggled through the air so far this season – averaging just 231 yards per game, good for seventh in the Pac-10 – they still sit third in the conference in total offense behind Oregon and Arizona State. They’ve done most of their damage on the ground, and only trail the explosive Ducks in the conference standings, averaging 203.7 yards per game rushing. The Trojans have also locked other teams down, leading the conference in total defense and giving up a scant 252.1 yards per game this season.
Carroll would agree. “I think the defense is really playing well. I think we’re really playing a very aggressive style,” Carroll said. “We’re tackling the best we’ve ever tackled in any of the groups that we’ve had across the board.”
The problem has been turnovers. USC and UCLA are tied for eighth in the conference with a minus-4 turnover rating, only ahead of Oregon State. Five fumbles and 12 interceptions against the Trojans so far this year have provided other teams with second chances and close games that the offensive and defensive statistics wouldn’t suggest.
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Injuries stymie Trojans’ game plan
Daily Emerald
October 25, 2007
John Givot
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