Halloween night.
ESPN College GameDay.
“Lights-Out Autzen.”
Everything is coming together to form a perfect storm around Autzen Stadium and at the middle of it is the No. 4 USC Trojans and No. 10 Oregon Ducks. Both teams are 6-1 and fresh off of conference wins, but unlike in the past, this year the Trojans are the ones
looking up at the Ducks.
Albeit it’s only a slight lead that Oregon holds over the Trojans at a half a game, but it’s a lead nonetheless. Not often do the Trojans find themselves out of first place at any point during conference play. They’ve won the last seven Pac-10 titles.
“It’s definitely a big game,” center Jordan Holmes said. “SC has won the Pac-10 championship the past seven years in a row. It’s just two great football teams going up against each other.”
But Holmes and the rest of the team won’t buy into the hype. Sure, they’re excited that the whole nation will be watching, but under head coach Chip Kelly’s mantra of “win the day,” this team really does only think one day at a time.
“They have a lot of resiliency,” Kelly said. “They’re a group of guys that love football. Love practicing and love playing in the games. It’s a great group to be around and we have a lot of fun. They play with a lot of energy.”
The Ducks bring in the No. 19 ranked defense in the nation, while the Trojans are at No. 16 in total defense. In most categories these two teams are a lot closer to each other than some realize, even to the point where some national pundits like Dan Patrick and
Colin Cowherd said that USC was the underdog.
“Tell Dan Patrick and Colin Cowherd that I love them,” Kelly said Monday at his weekly press conference when asked about what he thought about people thinking that Oregon was the favorite Saturday. “But they’re in the minority right now that says USC is the underdog…who’s ranked a head of who? Who’s been the conference champion the last seven years? Until you can claim that top spot in the league you have to beat them and no one has. They are the standards that we all kind of compare ourselves to.”
The Trojans do pose a lot of matchup problems with the stable full of blue-chip recruits that line up on both sides of the ball, but the most surprising problem has been the stellar play of true freshman Matt Barkley. He’s won every game that he’s started this year (Aaron Corp started in the loss to Washington), and grown exponentially as a player every game this year.
“He has played at some big stadiums,” linebacker Spencer Paysinger said. “Hopefully we can get our fans behind us and play lights out.”
Oregon thinks that it can rattle Barkley with a mixture of disguised coverages and pressure. Defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said that he said the key to getting to Barkley is shutting down the run game and forcing him to throw when Oregon wants him to. But in the end, it’s just about who comes ready to play.
“I know my guys are ready to play,” Aliotti said. “As long as we practice hard, and we line up and get after it we’ll find out on Saturday.”
For Oregon, no one needs to tell the team how much is riding on this game. Win, and the Trojans have two losses and the Ducks are in control of their own fate in conference with a perfect 5-0 record. Lose, and the team’s Rose Bowl berth dreams will be dimmed significantly. The Trojans haven’t won in the state of Oregon since 2005 and every fan is yearning for the Ducks to make the drought one more year longer.
“They have probably the deepest team in the nation,” Paysinger said. “For us, they’re not all going to be all on the field at the same time. It’s going to be their 11 best against our 11 best and I know we’re going to perform well.”
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