Sept. 4 – San Jose State
Sept. 11 – Stanford
Sept. 18 – @ Washington State
Sept. 25 – Oregon State
Oct. 2 – @ Colorado
Oct. 9 – Utah
Oct. 16 – BYE
Oct. 23 – @ Notre Dame
Oct. 30 – Arizona
Nov. 6 – @ Arizona State
Nov. 13 – @ California
Nov. 20 – UCLA
Nov. 27 – BYU
USC has a beneficial and intriguing order of opponents. Seven home games are nice too.
All games are on Saturday.
No Oregon and Washington — the North Division’s top two in 2020.
Conference opponents combined for only a 20-27 record in 2020; the three non-conference opponents went 28-4.
USC loses its turn in the home-and-home Notre Dame cycle, and plays the Irish two straight in South Bend, this time after a bye weekend.
For the first time since 2009, USC will not end its reg season against either UCLA or Notre Dame.
For the first time, the Pac-12 championship will be held on Dec. 3 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev.
Jim Harbaugh keeps firing his assistant coaches as did Mack Brown did over & over again his last years at Texas. And the wins still didn’t come enough. I could come up with other similar examples if I had to. No matter who or how many assistant coaches is brought into a program, it is still the HC that sets the tone in how the program executes. So no matter how much Mike Bohn surrounds Clay Helton with fresh assistants, Helton will affect the outcome just by sitting in meetings, walking the practice field and walking the sidelines in a… Read more »
I was listening to Fox NFL Sports analyst Daryl Johnston talk about “scheme and culture” and how the addition of Dan Quinn to the Cowboys should really help them on defense. Then Johnston spoke of Washington (formerly the Redskins) and Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio effectively selling the same goal, and how their team was “tight and focused, and has a better vibe” (than the Cowboys). The truth is, I never see USC as what I would call a “tight and focused” team. Last season, I saw the Trojan “vibe” as inconsistent, sloppy, talented, and lucky, if anything. And… Read more »
At least BYU won’t have QB Zach Wilson:
LAT (Ryan Kartje) — USC will face a more challenging non-conference slate than it probably imagined when it first signed on to play both San Jose State and Brigham Young. Those two teams, which bookend the Trojans schedule, finished 18-2 last season. However, BYU must replace star QB Zach Wilson, who led the Cougars to a win over USC in their 2019 meeting and is expected to be a top draft pick.
It is always hard to tell until they actually hit the field in a real game, but the BYU coaches seem pretty happy with their 4 way competition they have to replace Zach. One was their scout team QB that really impressed them last year.
Would love to hear your prediction of who wins this 4-way deal and starts their season sometime. Maybe he’ll end up becoming another one of those very strong BYU QBs.
Way too soon to call. I have seen good reports on all of them. Three of them played in live action last year.
Three of them, plus Wilson? How did all they squeeze in there?
jaren Hall started two games in 2019 but left both for concussion protocol.
Jacob Conover was the practice squad qb and a four star out of Arizona. He is the one the defensive coordinator was raving about.
Another article mentions Baylor Romney has game experience but does not say where.
All-Jay Maiava-Peter is the other. But I am not seeing when he got in a game either. I had read a couple weeks ago that three had game experience.
Interesting to know. All schools have so many different types of issues at varying positions and levels.
Thanks for the detailed update @UtahTrojan
It’ll be great to read the pre-season mags for me — and see what they are saying about BYU’s QB derby. Seems like it’s gonna be a free-for-all. And by the time he gets to play against USC at the end of the season, he’ll have plenty of experience, unless they’re unable to settle on a #1 who sticks.
Allen, what will have to happen this up coming season in order to move on from Clay Helton?
In all honesty, I think only the Wizard of Oz really knows this one. I’d say he has to beat UCLA, at least play for the conference title, get into a good bowl, and win it. But he could probably squeeze in with not winning it, really. But throw in a loss to improving UCLA, and I’d say all bets are off. I really don’t have a good feel for what Bohn truly expects of CH in 2021, or what his plans are, since he’s put so much money and effort recently into bringing in people to support Clay —… Read more »
Good schedule: no weather games and NO WEEKDAY GAMES. Hopefully, this will be the last year of a Friday night Championship game.
The schedule as I see it not that easy. From Colorado to Arizona State USC is going to have its hands full, then there is always the ucla game. If SC goes 8-4 which I think they will, with a loss to ND and ucla it could finally be the end of Helton. I cannot figure out why the Pac12 moves the championship game to look big time in Las Vegas, then play it on Friday night. Friday night is for high schools, not NCAA conference championships.
Hopefully, someone will throw in some info about why the Pac-12 championship game couldn’t have been on Saturday, Dec. 4. Friday night makes no sense to me, either.
I’d say this is a pretty darn good 7-game home schedule. 1. SJS is coming off a fantastic 7-1 season for them — even if they did lose to BALL ST in the Offerpad Arizona Bowl 34-13, and should provide a good opening test in the amazing new/state-of-the-art L.A. Memorial Coliseum. 2. We should beat STAN. David Shaw seems on the decline to me. 3. ORE ST actually beat ORE 41-38 in Corvallis last season. The Beavers can surprise people every now and then. I kind of like their coach, Jonathan Smith. 4. UTAH is always tough, ready and physical,… Read more »
I am looking at how challenging this schedule is, not how easy. If USC wins most all of them, will they impress the pollsters? I don’t see it. If the Pac-12 conference is down (and it is), playing San Jose St. & BYU isn’t going to bring you many brownie points. If ASU & ND wins most their games, that’s all USC has to win any converts by beating these two teams which you know won’t happen in South Bend. Then you play Oregon or UDUB?
If USC goes 10-2 through this not-too-bad gauntlet, they’ll go to a GREAT bowl game.
I really like USC’s out-of-conference games, as well as the order of the conference line-up.
With this new USC-Pac12 football schedule, The WSU game has been moved up. No snow or heavy rain in Pullman during September. I now see two games USC will lose: at ND and at ASU. Now if Helton can pull out another escape not playing ND and the ASU game can somehow be moved to LA, then milk & cookies to everyone compliments of Clay Helton. Put this schedule against top teams in the SEC, Big 10 & ACC, and you will get belly laughs.
Hallelujah! Finally no Thursday or Friday games for SC in the regular season. Only OSU, UCLA and SC have none. But still the CCG is on a Friday, short week for all but CU, Utah, UW and WSU. If Huskies win the north nice advantage for them over the south winner unless Utah or Colorado win it.
I don’t care to look, because Helton is still in charge, but are there any Pac-12 games starting at Pop-Warner 9-year-old teams kick-off? You know, Saturday morning at 9:00am?
Haven’t seen start times yet. Hopefully only if on the east coast.
Every game will be televised somewhere, but as always the networks pick and choose their time slots a week or so before the game.
I still feel this will be no better than a 500 season, but it would appear they are going as easy as possible on Hugs with this schedule.
Now that the Pac-12 does USC a scheduling favor, it happens when USC has a coach who rivals Paul Hackett in unpopularity. In many ways, I think thousands of Trojan fans dislike Gentleman Clay more because they feel stuck with Clay. We all knew Garrett wouldn’t let the Hackett nonsense continue after three years.
bye or no bye, not feeling like that game will be fun for me.
Brian Kelly completely owns USC now, sorry to say. I’ve never been to South Bend and seen USC come away with a win. But I was there in 1989, when Todd Marinovich couldn’t get the Trojans into the end zone at the end. It was just the worst. 1989 – Notre Dame 28, USC 24 — Notre Dame was ranked #1 with an 18-game winning streak.The game was marred by a brawl in the tunnel before the start of the contest. Once it began, it was a thriller. USC QB Todd Marinovich completed 33 of 55 passes and staked the Trojans to… Read more »
I remember it well. I actually hate the Irish more than the little gutties. Given the choice between the two, I always want the win over ND.
Also I agree Kelly is so far superior to Clay. They were patient and weathered his down year knowing he’s a good coach. Now they reap the reward. He knows who he can bring in there and how they have to play to be successful. I do t think they will win a NC, but they are in the conversation. Something we are miles and miles away from.
I have respected the Irish as a team of equals with SC–small private schools competing in the Division I neighborhood of State financed football programs. (Maybe foltie is reducing football to the point where this comparison will not apply any more.) I always described the issue as this: If my kids/grandkids go to ucla, they’re dead to me, out of the will, you get the idea. I would be okay if they went to ND.
That darn Tony Rice! He did some major damage to us. Anthony Davis was the true Irish Killer, of course. He simply ruined ND.
And to a lesser extent, Rice wrecked USC in both the Coliseum and in South Bend. So many times, we seemingly had them defended, only to see Rice complete a perfect pass (even though he wasn’t much of a thrower), or athletically slither out from Trojan defenders for a few extra yds, and naturally to a first down. Ugh!
Yes Tony Rice gave USC defense fits as did Vince Young. Cam Newton, Deshaun Watson, Tim Tebow all created mismatches against pretty much all defenses. Seems to me a dual threat QB would fit in quite nicely in an AR offense, especially when you can’t run the ball. Maybe GH/Helton aren’t sophisticated enough trying to force a round peg into a square hole?
Has Helton ever recruited a pure dual threat QB?
! think that’s exactly what incoming Utah frosh Jaxson Dart is — a total dual-threat guy to the max. He ran for 1,195 yds (9.3 ypc) and 12 TDs last season.
OK. Good. I might see him play after this coming season unless Slovis gets banged up. Interesting to see how this threat will change the offense production if Dart wins the starter.
Actually, he provides a fantastic backstop IMO for 2021 in case Slovis gets injured. These prep QBs are coming in more and more prepared these days. Dart’s 2020 tape looks amazing, even if it is showing only the highlights.
I would hope that Harrell takes Dart and immerses him heavily into the offense to get his feet wet. He will need to adjust to the speed on both sides of the ball. If Slovis goes down it would seem Fink would be the guy. If he can’t perform I would hope Helton would replace him, but I would never bet on that. Helton has a bad history of leaving inadequate players in the game. Toa!!
The last time I saw Fink on the field for USC, he didn’t look like he was good enough to be a college QB frankly. I’m sure he’s rusty, but if that’s the best USC’s got, and he needs to play (as in start at QB as a fill-in), I’m easily back down to a 6-6 season at the very best. With Slovis out, USC is basically neutered.
Right or wrong, I’m hoping, make that predicting, Jaxson Dart or Miller Moss win the #2 position, or at least end up replacing Fink if Matt needs to play.