Game Day – Trojans host the Cardinal

*No. 15 USC will play the first Pac-12 game of 2021 when it hosts long-time foe Stanford under the lights in the Coliseum on FOX.
*It’s Joint Forces Day at the Coliseum, honoring military personnel and first responders, and there will be a special pre-game recognition of the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
*Stanford is USC’s oldest rival, dating to 1905. However, the teams didn’t meet in 2020 for first time since 1945.
*USC has won just 40% of its past 15 games versus the Cardinal, but Troy has captured 3 of the past 4 in L.A
*Stanford is USC’s oldest rival, with the series dating back to 1905.
*USC holds a 63-33-3 lead over Stanford (Troy’s 2005 victory was vacated due to NCAA penalty; original record: 64-33-3). USC has just 6 wins in the past 15 meetings. In its last 45 contests with the
Cardinal, USC has gone 30-14-1 (and Troy is 45-17-1 in the past 63 games). *In games in the Los Angeles area (including a 1918 game in Pasadena), USC leads 28-19-1 (not including a USC win in 2005 vacated due to NCAA penalty; original record: 29-19-1) and has won 3 of the last 4, most recently 45-20 in 2019.
*In that most recent meeting in 2019, Trojan true freshman QB Kedon Slovis–subbing for injured QB JT Daniels–started for the first time and completed nearly 85% of his passes while throwing for 377 yards and 3 TDs and USC scored the game’s final 35 points to give the Trojans a convincing 45-20 victory over No. 23 Stanford in the Pac-12’s season opener.

Cardinal to Watch: Junior RB Austin Jones

Talented tailbacks have been a staple of the modern resurgence of Stanford football from Toby Gerhart to Bryce Love, but as the results have faded in recent years, the Cardinal have struggled to maintain that power run game. Stanford was 11th in the Pac-12 in rushing the last two full seasons (2018 and 2019), but ticked up a bit last year with Jones as the leading man. While he had a rough opening game against Kansas State (25 yards on 9 carries), he led the Pac-12 in rushing touchdowns with 9 in 2020.

3 Keys to game:

QB Carousel

Stanford head coach David Shaw could not decide between his two quarterbacks going into their season opener, so he played both Jack West and Tanner McKee, and McKee emerged as the starter for week two against the Trojans. McKee is the pedigree play, ranked the No. 3 pro-style QB in 2018 behind only Trevor Lawrence and JT Daniels, so the talent is there. The key for the Trojans is to not let McKee get his footing and grow in confidence as he’s still an inexperienced player having missed two years on his Mormon mission.

Gas Pedal Down

In 2019, Graham Harrell’s first year as USC offensive coordinator, the Trojans scored 31 points in a tight opener against Fresno State. They came back in week two and absolutely eviscerated Stanford, opening up the offense for 45 points as Kedon Slovis passed for 377 yards in his first career start. After a balanced game plan in a 30-point effort versus San Jose State, expect Harrell and Slovis to attack the Cardinal more aggressively on Saturday. To do so, they’ll need some of the other explosive weapons to make an impact like Michael Trigg or Gary Bryant Jr.

Run It Back

The USC defense played with consistent effort and execution over the course of 60 minutes last week. The Trojans stopped the run, blanketed the receivers and harassed the quarterback. In year two under Todd Orlando, this could be a special group with playmakers at all three levels. Stanford’s offense is lacking identity and low on confidence, so this is a great opportunity for USC to build its reputation as a dominant defense.

RANDOM NOTES
***USC’s 2021 team captains, elected by their teammates prior to the season, are S Isaiah Pola-Mao, TB Vavae Malepeai, WR Drake London
and P Ben Griffiths. This is Pola-Mao’s second consecutive season as a captain, while the others are first timers. Griffiths is the first specialist
to serve as a USC captain since placekicker Adam Abrams did so in 1998. This also is the second straight season that USC has had only one
defensive player as a captain (before that, it last happened in 2003) .

Please click on the link below for the official stat sheet from the USC/San Jose game.

Game 1 Stats