No. 22 Washington
(4-2, 1-1 Pacific-10
Conference) at No. 19 USC (4-2, 2-1)
12:30 p.m., ABC
After playing in five-straight games at Husky Stadium — after starting the year at Michigan — Washington finally hits the road for the first game of its two-game road trip.
USC, on the other hand, stays in Southern California after a narrow defeat of California last week.
The Trojans and Huskies will butt heads in a nationally-televised game that is sure to get the attention of the East Coast voters.
USC leads the all-time series, 42-26-4, but the Huskies have won three of the last four games. Last season, Washington was victorious, as a 32-yard field goal with time expiring split the uprights, sending the Huskies to their 12th straight victory.
This season, though, has been an entirely different story for Washington and head coach Rick Neuheisel.
It has been a trying season for Neuheisel, who, in the first game of the season against Michigan, played a part in a penalty that eventually gave the Wolverines a victory. Then, just last week, he was reprimanded by the NCAA for recruiting violations while he was head coach at Colorado.
He has never been that popular among Pac-10 teams. Now, he’s dropping even lower.
“The bottom line is, you have days that are a lot of fun and days that are more of a challenge,” Neuheisel said regarding the NCAA investigation. “The guys who are able to stay the course and do the job in a long-term capacity are the ones that can weather all of it. First you can’t believe it when they are saying really nice things about you, and second you can’t buy it when they’re telling you that you’re worthless. The level of venom did not surprise me. The only thing that disappointed me was when they misspelled my name.”
For the Trojans, the resurgence of senior quarterback Carson Palmer has led the way to a resurgence of their own.
After suffering through three seasons and a redshirt year, Palmer has shown the maturity required of a successful quarterback in the Pac-10.
He is third in the conference in passing yards per game at 272.2 and is fourth in total offense at 257.8 yards per game.
“I think Carson Palmer is a gifted player,” Neuheisel said. “I think it has been well-documented that I recruited him. Unfortunately, too well-documented.”
Yet it is running back Sultan McCullough who may be the key ingredient to the USC offense. The senior has helped revive the Trojan offense and is beginning to cull thoughts of days when USC was known as “Tailback U” for all the success it once had running the ball.
McCullough carried the ball 39 times for a career-high 176 yards in USC’s win over California.
“Somebody’s got to carry the load,” McCullough said after the game. “It was me, and I’m grateful. I got tired, but the coaches had been saying all week, ‘Finish, finish, finish.’ And that’s what I had to do.”
Look for a shoot-out in Southern California as two potent offenses go to war.
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