Oregon State Beavers (2-1, 0-0) vs. USC Trojans (2-1, 1-1) 
United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on FS1 at 7:30pm PT
USC welcomes Oregon State to the Coliseum for the first time since 2017.
USC has won 85% of its games versus the Beavers, including 24 straight victories in Los Angeles.
Return of the King
Kedon Slovis is expected to start at quarterback after playing only one series against Washington State before injuring his neck. Freshman Jaxson Dart sparked the offense in his place just like Slovis did for USC back in 2019. The junior would do well to follow the freshman’s lead in this case, pushing the ball aggressively down the field and spreading it around to all his targets. Ideally, the Trojans will pick up their running game, but ultimately, this offense comes down to the quarterback, so USC needs Slovis to get back to his All-Pac-12 form.
One Dimension
Oregon State has the best offense in the league through three weeks, averaging 453 yards per game. The Beavers have taken a balanced approach with the Pac-12’s third-best rushing offense and fourth-best passing offense. In a pick your poison scenario, USC has to stop the run first and put the ball in the hands of sophomore QB Chance Nolan. The young quarterback has been excellent so far (5 TDs/0 INTs), but he’s winless in four games against Power 5 teams the last two seasons, so beating the Trojans in the Coliseum is a daunting task.
Accountability Counts
With another week as head coach under his belt, Donte Williams is starting to show the team what he’s really about and that’s accountability. He’s instituted disciplinary measures that extend from the coaching staff on down through the players, and he’s getting the Trojans to buy into a team-first approach. They did well to rally together in adverse circumstance last Saturday in Pullman and now need to build momentum and confidence as the season progresses.
Credits: USC Athletic Department
I remember Ed O started feeding cookies to his O-linemen to get their minds right when he was trying to nail down the Trojan job past interim. That didn’t work either.
Any new suggestions Ed O? I hear you’ve got your hands full at LSU.
But didn’t the Trojan players promise Clay McGuire they would play better? Shocking!
I actually think the o-line improved in their pass protection. Except for a few lightning sacks, Slovis had plenty of time. I kept wishing the camera crew would show what’s going on downfield from a more zoomed out view because Slovis was BBQing back there much of the time.
Poor Slovis threw some really bad picks. He seems like he’s in his own world out there to me. Kind of like the entire USC team.
I am not even mad this morning. I’m not sure what I expected, but the level of broken is more than Donte can fix with a few band aid remedies. Also, I know how fast a good coach can fix things. We are one good hire and 2 years away from being good again, 3 years from possibly being great.
in the meantime, I’m buckling up for possibly the worst few months of USC football that I can remember.
I’m feeling hungover and I didn’t even drain a single Ayinger last night. I imagined Taps playing as I took down the USC Trojans banner from my front porch this morning. This entire football season will, I imagine, be filled with notes of mourning and undertones of hope for a joyful football program resurrection.
The way the Beavers manhandled the receivers, drawing penalty after penalty, was in my view a coaching decision and a poor one in the face of sportsmanship and fairness. Why encourage your players to break the rules and be penalized so harshly. Some will say it was okay, a clever ploy to throw off the SC receivers with inferior defensive backs. I cannot say that, you should play the game within the rules, or at least try to most of the time. Not that it mattered a lot in the end result, USC flat out sucked on both sides of… Read more »
Slovis is horrible. He has regressed to a 2nd string QB. The coaching staff has screwed this kid.
Final Score
Oregon 41
Arizona 19
If you took Arizona and the 27.5 points, you are a winner.
Calling a night. Really feel sorry for Kedon. SC really let him down.
ORE ST must have 250 yds in penalties. They still could put up fitty on the woeful Trojans.
Helton effect is still going strong. But who’s to blame? Mike Bohn coulda, shoulda, woulda without leadership. He left an incompetent nincompoop in charge and burned the book of tradition. I hope I’m still alive if USC ever comes back but at this point it’s wIt till next decade.
Final Score
ASU 35
Colorado 13
Anyone taking ASU and giving 14.5 points is a winner
We’re going to get blown out by ASU and UCLA.
And ND and BYU. We should be favored only against Cal and AZ.
5-7 is what we can hope for. We could actually go 4-8. Arizona is the only guaranteed win at this point. Ugh….
Garbage time TD’s are what the Beavers used to be all about. Sad reversal. Hope you all have a good rest of your weekend
Time to bail on this game and watch something else.
Drake London is still worth watching. What a player. Hope he doesn’t get hurt because his body is always in harm’s way.
Put Moss in. OSU is playing 2 & 3rd strings at this point. Might as well get him some experience in the Coli.
This is much worse than the Stanford loss, because we expected the possibility under Clay, but now have the knowledge that we had the potential to play like last week, but haven’t even given half the effort. We let a team that hasn’t won here in 60 years, not only beat us in our house, but destroyed us in all phases. Lowest of lows
They have already lost focus and quit effort wise. If I were Dante, I would look at the film and bench the quitters and play the guys who want to give it, no matter how far the depth chart they are.
It’s kind of a shame that Clay The Cat Helton isn’t forced to endure his monster USC football creation in person. He’s the one who deserves more boos, but he got off too easy I say. He always was too lucky for his own good.
Totally disagree. The SC Administration is responsible for this mess. They allowed an incompetent to run the program when it was obvious he was incompetent. They created this mess.
As we’ve been saying ever since Carol Folt took over as President, the Administration doesn’t care about USC football. They want to turn the University into another Harvard or Princeton. All I want to say to Der Fueher Foltie is “how’s that workin’ for ya?”
If the administration isn’t responsible for this mess, I don’t know who is. Who put Helton in as HC? Who extended his contract even though it was obvious he couldn’t attract any decent position coach to come in and brought in stiffs. And still, who kept him here the last year or two when it was obvious he wasn’t lifting a finger recruiting and constantly creating depth problems or disciplining the team?
What’s this, Fox not bothering to show commercials because nobody is watching?
They just want to get this fiasco over.
Wow, the Coli has cleared out!
They’re taking the last train to Clarksville.
And I am not a believer
I’m just monkeying around.
I have been withholding my Slovis vs Dart vote until tonight. I wanted to see how Slovis rebounded. I’ve seen enough. I’m all in with Dart as soon as he’s healthy.
Poor Slovis.He just has no mojo whatsoever. USC managed to ruin him. He might even be better off injured and off the field at this rate.
Should transfer and resurrect his career like Daniels has.
Slovis can’t hold a candle to JT’s talent. Slovis should transfer to an Ivy League school and just focus on an education.
Not a bad idea. I don’t know what happened to Slovis. Suppose I never will. It’s been a real slice of Trojan football I didn’t think my 8-4 projected Trojans were capable of. USC should just cancel the South Bend massacre based on some irrefutable Covid excuse.
At least the kids are still playing hard while behind 42 – 24.,
Slovis is the result of a HC who expected him to win games mostly by himself. Didn’t we see this happen to Darnold? Only, the team overall has regressed since those Darnold days.
Coming into USC, Slovis was a 3-star rated recruit. So is most of the Offensive Line. If that’s all you can get, things have a way of catching up to you.
Totally agree. He is no where near the player he was as a frosh. SC management allowed Clay to ruin a lot of careers. Of coaches and players. I still find it hard to accept the idiot sports writers picked this team as a top 25 team and winning the South.
I’m out …..Night all ……As always FIGHT ON !!!!!
Time to put in Miller Moss and see what he’s got. Was thinking he would play in garbage time but didn’t think we’d be the one trailing badly.
I don’t think that would be very fair to Miller Moss. It would be more like a punishment. Could scar him for life!
It’s officially garbage time.
I am getting to the point of saying many …..many …..many prayers that the hiring of our next permanent Head Coach is a name that gets the whole national college football media talking …………….for days and days …..FIGHT ON !!!!!
This team is trash. TO’s defense has no answers for the Beavers and Slovis cannot find an open receiver to save his life. I don’t think we’ll see a bowl game this year.
Only bowl we will see is the Toilet Bowl!
Final Score
Washington 31
Cal 24
Anyone taking Cal and the 7.5 points is a winner.
I am gonna sign off with something I said a week ago: “What a difference a week makes.”. But oh, such a different meaning.
Fight on, Y’all!
Their O-line vs our D-line is like men vs boys …..SMH !!!!!
Lack of discipline and lack of tackling
Quick question for you guys.
Is this the worst USC team we have ever seen? I think it’s actually possible, though it matters not at this stage.
It’s as bad a night as I’ve seen, but I’m not ready to call it the worst team yet. That 5-7 team a couple years back was pretty bad.
This team is giving Petro’s year a run for their money.
This team hasn’t come together as some people think. The quarterback is just waiting for his next injury. The offensive scheme is Pop Warner and the defense is told ” just do your job. ” Nobody knows what their job is. I am not sold on Donte as head coach. I don’t think this group should be in cardinal and gold. Yes this had better be the worst team we ever see.
A very bad showing for USC with all their deficiencies totally exposed. The defense and the continual blitz, the lack of speed, the missed assignments, lack of phyicality, poor tackling skills, the lack of solid determination by the QB. Dropped passes!! Washington probably should not play again for a while. OSU came with a plan to exploit and USC had nothing to come back with but the same stuff. Orlando was fired at Texas, now he will be fired at USC, for the same reasons. The run game surprised me, it was improved. Perhaps because OSU was so busy holding… Read more »
This is embarassing for our storied program. Give credit to OSU.
I put this on Carlo Folk. She didn’t want Urban Myers, fine. She is within her rights. But she needed to act much sooner to turn this mess around. Clearly Williams has no shot at the job after this game. Another dead man walking. Here’s looking to next season. At least my 49ers are playing well. FIGHT ON!!!! as best you can, gang.
49ers -3.5 vs Packers – Sunday night game. Are you giving the points?
I noticed 2 fun games to watch next 2 weeks in NFL (Tho I am not a fan of any of these teams ) Oct 3rd Rams vs Cardinals …..Oct 10th Cardinals vs San Francisco .
SC will never excel as long as that little Communist has veto power over football.
Man Slovis LOVES to throw to covered receivers !
Slovis stares and stares at his primary target (London), then either forces the ball to him or very late in a play decides to look at a secondary target. Poor kid has regressed from his freshman year.
Exactly, he hesitates so much, and takes so long, that DB’s have time to recover and make a play. He has lost the confidence he had the last two years. Now he fumbles. Time to see what Miller Moss can do. Dante has to have the courage to make a change. Best chance to win plays.
Thank goodness for refs!
My emotional heart (That LOVES this team ) is telling me to hang in there and keep watching ………..My brain is telling me to go to bed . (As it is headed to 1:30AM local time here).
I am having the same conflict. Thinking about tomorrows duties and concluding this game is not worth the Sunday Fatigue.
There is no doubt USC will lose this game. You can read the score in the morning.
Thanks. you may be correct Swami Steve!😂
Well this ends any thoughts about Donte Williams getting the job on a permanent basis.
I wonder if OSU is showing something different on Offense. If they are not, then another poor preparation performance by the defensive coaches, including Williams.
1am in Atlanta and you are still with us………..
I think the osu offense has studied Orlandos blitz crazy defense and figured out how to exploit the voids left when someone blitzes. Pretty simple.
Oregon State is the better team tonight. They know exactly how USC will react and have exploited it very well. I don’t think anyone has given up, they have just had their asses handed to them.
Steve, This game showcases the mess the Cat left behind. The OSU O is far superior to GH’s. It is not even close. We do not have much talent in the front 7 on D, particularly at LB and inside DL. OSU has more talent at those positions than we do. As I wrote earlier, this will end any calls for Donte to take over. Making him HC was a brilliant management move. Totally removed him from the running for HC.
Lots of empty seats.
Flashback of the Stanford game. We need a big time coach to come in and clean this mess up. USC has given up.
Total abomination by Orlando and Williams on defense.
Second no excuse blown coverage of the night
OSU is outplaying us except in penalties.
Good night all. Fight on!
Perhaps this would be a good time to see what Moss is good at.
The environment at the Coli sounds dead. With good reason.
Hard to cheer and groan at the same time.
True dat.
From third and one to third and eleven pretty much explains the sluggish offense this season
So glad to have hope. Not in this game or season, but to borrow a Sam Cooke line “ a change is gonna come”.
SC deserves to lose this one. The coaching on defense is horrible, including the DB’s who belong to Donte. Simplify it and quit the stupid blitz. Oregon St is running right through it
No knock on Donte. But I hope everyone will now accept the reality that an experienced HC is required to fix the mess that is USC Football. This not a job for a first timer. Good luck to whoever gets the job. He is going to need it.
Defense looks terrible and isn’t tackling or gaining the edge. Beavers aren’t doing anything we shouldn’t have been prepared for.
They are simply taking what USC is giving them, play after play.
So much for the short lived emotional bump from the coaching change, from last week to this week
Terrible tackling. Beavs look so much quicker
Dude, they are quicker. USC is slow and OSU is exploiting it.
Beginning to feel my hope of us being the next team to score is not doing well .