Caleb Williams and USC make history in pulverizing win over the Cardinal.
This is one parting gift that a bad Stanford team won’t soon forget.
Thuc Nhi Nguyen (LA Times) — No. 6 USC hammers longtime rival Stanford 56-10 behind a stellar performance from Caleb Williams and the USC offense.
In the last Pac-12 matchup between longtime conference rivals, No. 6 USC beat up Stanford 56-10, sending the Cardinal into the ACC with its largest margin of defeat in the series since a 42-0 drubbing in 2006. With a spot in the Big Ten waiting next season, the Trojans (3-0, 1-0 Pac-12 Conference) had their best scoring night in the rivalry since hanging 51 on the Cardinal in 2005.
It was the most points USC has scored against Stanford and the 46-point difference marked the Trojans’ biggest win over the Cardinal since 1977 (49-0).
While the Trojans kept Stanford’s new-look offense under first-year head coach Troy Taylor out of the end zone until the 3:35 mark of the fourth quarter, quarterback Caleb Williams continued his early-season dominance. The junior threw for 300 yards and three touchdowns on 19-for-22 passing. Through three games, Williams has led 25 drives that resulted in 18 touchdowns.
On Saturday, the Heisman winner just kept making magical plays look routine. He did it on the ground, rushing 21 yards while bulldozing a Stanford defender at the goal line for USC’s opening touchdown. He did it through the air, throwing a perfect pass 65 yards that hit a sprinting Brenden Rice in stride for a 75-yard touchdown. And he did it off script, dancing in the pocket for six seconds until he scrambled to his right and fired a 19-yard touchdown strike to a crossing Dorian Singer.
Then he went to the sideline.
With a comfortable 49-3 lead, Williams stepped aside for the entire second half as backup Miller Moss appeared in his third consecutive blowout win.
Zachariah Branch dives but comes up short of a TD in the first quarter against Stanford.(Wally Skalij / LAT)
Aided by a 75-yard punt return for touchdown by freshman Zachariah Branch, the Trojans were so potent in the first half that by their sixth touchdown, mascot Traveler was too tired to make the customary celebration run around the field. They still tacked on a seventh before the break as Lake McRee caught a one-yard pass from Williams with 10 seconds left in the second quarter.
With 178 combined points against San José State, Nevada and Stanford, USC has scored the most points through the first three games of a season since 2005, when the Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush-led Trojans hung 178 against Hawai’i, Arkansas and Oregon.
The Trojans locked down the Cardinal with a stout defensive front that tallied eight tackles for loss.
Bear Alexander, a 6-foot-3, 300-pound defensive tackle, finished with two tackles and one pass breakup, but impacted the game in ways beyond the stat sheet. His pressure in the face of Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels on second-and-seven on Stanford’s first drive led to a wobbly throw that safety Max Williams easily picked off for USC’s first interception of the season.
Daniels left the game early in the second quarter after he was injured on a strip sack by Solomon Byrd, who led the Trojans with two tackles for loss and one sack. The Cardinal recovered Daniels’ fumble, but Byrd’s rush end running mate Jamil Muhammad secured another takeaway on the next drive, sacking backup Justin Lamson and forcing a fumble that linebacker Tackett Curtis recovered.
After no takeaways in the first game, USC had three in the next two.
latimes.com
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I eluded to this last night, the PAC 2 refs set the bar below the ground when it comes to officially messing up the rules. Before the SC game, I watched the PAC 2 refs award the game to Oregon. They called an interception in the end zone incomplete. They ignored a Targeting foul on the ducks defense. I only knew they were refs from the conference of leftovers because the commentators mentioned this fact. Then we move to the USC game. The reason for our first punt, during the game, was a mauling of an open receiver by a… Read more »
I think that was called a false start, then they took it back and blamed the loud music from the PA system/DJ. I agree the canned music needs to go, let the bands battle it out.
https://twitter.com/SickosCommittee/status/1700742854442676416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1700742854442676416%7Ctwgr%5E8cd494ff7601b9c488c5ca8b3668c9937674a545%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finsideusc.blog%2F2023%2F09%2F10%2Fusc-sunday-buzz-coliseum-needs-to-settle-down%2F
I almost forgot that play, but technically the refs could have penalized the Trojans, being the home team and employee of the (useless) D.J. As the band teacher I was following the rules at a H.S. football game. My drummers always stopped when the teams lined up. However a ref said we were giving him a headache and demanded our drumsticks. I refused. I had a copy of the CIF rules with me. The head ref said those rules don’t matter I decide the rules. I sent the band back to the school. The band parents (gathered around close enough… Read more »
Never the less, Pac2 refs are horrible. Soon to be unemployed, who else would want them.
Yes, the ref for Saturday’s game was a male-version fo a Karen. Complete beta-male. He gets verbally abused by his wife most of his days. Works in a cubicle in some worthless middle-management position for a company whose only client is the government. He signed up to be president of his home-owner’s association so he would have an opportunity to cite miniscule, pointless infractions of the association rules to inconvenience his neighbors.. And becoming a ref for the worst run athletic group in the USA (even including local little leagues and flag football teams in parks) which is the PAC-2.… Read more »
The delay of game was called on Domani Jackson for calling defensive signals that mimicked the snap count. If he did it, that would fall under the heading of defensive delay of game.
I stand corrected SC Gator, you are right I found a better recording of the ref’s comments. However the correct call is “disconcerting” for that call to be valid the defense must mimic the quarterback . The defense has the right to make adjustment calls at the line of scrimmage, and the Stanford line is supposed to listen to their quarterback. It wasn’t delay of game just because the offense reacted to the defensive calls. It was false start.
I think I confused Domani Jackson with Raesjon Davis. I’m pretty sure they called the penalty on number 9.
It was fun burying Stanford last night. They should have been asking us “What’s Your Deal?” last night. Doubt we’ll play them again in a non-conference game since we’ll have 9 tough Big 10 games and need our other 3 games to be against easy opponents. But who knows since they’ll become an ACC doormat.
It was a great and fitting send-off to the Cardinal. Total humiliation. I loved the line from Luca Evans of the OC Register.
“With a first-half USC massacre so brutal that parents should have shielded children’s eyes…”
The Stanford D should have been able to have 17 players to double team everyone that might get the ball. Still wouldn’t have helped!
Stanford was so slow, it is just as easy to run past two defenders as it is just one.
TD Pass by Colts Michael Pittman Jr caught ball ran 40 yards for TD !
The Official burial of USC/STAN per Luca Evans (OC Register) “And put in the dirt, officially, on Sept. 9, 2023, with a first-half USC massacre so brutal that parents should have shielded children’s eyes, a 56-10 drubbing in which Lincoln Riley and company came out of the bell delivering unrelenting uppercuts to a Cardinal team that trailed by three touchdowns at the end of the first quarter. “Caleb Williams threw for 281 yards in the first half, and USC (3-0 overall, 1-0 Pac-12) racked up 433 yards of offense and got seven touchdowns by seven players while building a 49-3… Read more »
Thanks for posting this. Perfect point. It appears that SC and Stanford are not going to meet for quite a while. The last time Stanford was here, they buried Clay Helton and ended his destruction of Trojan football. This time, they saw what their efforts last time had wrought. SC O played its best game in decades; the SC D played its best game of the Grinch era. What this game showed is that the first team SC O and first team SC D is very very good. The drop off, however, from the first level to the second is… Read more »
As long as they only need to sub out the first team here and there we will be fine.
I would have liked to see Miller Moss with the first team for at least one drive last night. Bet he would have scored, not as quickly as Caleb, but quickly.
It would have been good but it would have been lacking something, and we all know what that would have been.
I agree with you. I also enjoyed the growing bond between Moss and Duce Robinson.
USC has 6 games with top 25 teams, none of the top 4 have that many. If Trojans survive they should be #1 by Dec 1st. That’s a big if! Long way to go.
The Trojans are in a great position: Top 5, week off to heal up more, Caleb’s kicking butt, Miller’s getting to play, Zach is a superstar who scares opponents as much as Caleb does, LR’s 14-3 at USC, MarShawn Lloyd can carry the rock, Bear is well, a bear, Clay Helton is long gone, USC leads the Pac and is headed to the B1G, our game against CU now looks like a potential barnburner, STAN got absolutely killed ending the rivalry in the Coliseum and has been forced into the ACC (hah, hah, hah), ORE looks beatable, UCLA looks like,… Read more »
PAC has eight teams in the top 25, SEC 5, BIG 4, ACC 4 and B12 3. Really strange to see the sole remaining PAC teams both in the top 25. SC clearly has the toughest schedule in the nation; SC has a six game season (meaning playing top 25 teams); I doubt any other team outside the PAC even has a three game season, with the SEC teams playing scrimmages between “real” games. It is a unique opportunity for Caleb; he will have six major stages in the regular season to perform. And, if he plays like he did… Read more »
My headline is, “AP voters move up UCLA to #7…in the Pac-12.”
Coaches Poll Top 25 1. Georgia (64) 2. Michigan (1) 3. Florida State 4. Ohio State 5. USC 6. Texas 7. Penn State 8. Washington 9. Tennessee 10. Alabama 11. Notre Dame 12. Utah 13. Oregon 14. LSU 15. Kansas State 16. Oklahoma 17. Oregon State 18. North Carolina 19. Ole Miss 20. Duke 21. Colorado 22. Clemson 23. Miami 24. Iowa 25. UCLA Others receiving votes: Washington State 80; Kentucky 38; Texas Christian 26; Auburn 23; Texas A&M 21; Fresno State 21; Kansas 17; Tulane 16; Missouri 14; Maryland 14; Wake Forest 13; Oklahoma State 12; Central Florida 11; Arkansas 10; Syracuse 9; Cincinnati 8; Wisconsin 7; Mississippi State 7; Wyoming 6; Minnesota 6; Air Force 5; South Carolina… Read more »
Well ………. The RPI Poll (Not my #1 poll ) Finally moved SC into their top 10 .They have SC # 6 behind GA #1 ….. Mich #2 …..Ohio St #3…..Penn St #4 …..Fla St . #5.
https://youtu.be/XXss7SsrrlA
HISTORIC ALUMNI RECOGNIZED AT COLISEUM The Trojans welcomed an alumnus as old as the Coliseum itself on Saturday night when they honored 100-year-old Bruce Gelker with a medal of courage in the first quarter. Gelker played both football and baseball for USC in 1943 and played left tackle for the Trojans in the 1944 Rose Bowl. After his time at USC, he joined the Marine Corps during the Korean War. Bruce was a great friend of my family and he was a huge supporter of Newport Harbor football when I played with his son Grant back on the 1968 and… Read more »
You really are a Trojan for life, as the saying goes.
It’s sad to think that we might not see Stanford again……ever.
Good luck in the ACC!…..
Not that broke up at the prospect of never playing the nerds again 😆
Must be some kind of CFB record … USC’s a QB factory.
Four former or current USC QBs won yesterday: JT Daniels (RICE), Kedon Slovis (BYU), Jackson Dart (OLE MISS) and Heisman winner Caleb Williams.
They say payback is a bitch, but honestly it’s also sweet for those on the paying end. It was almost one hundred years ago that Stanford and Cal conspired to kick USC out of the conference. (it lasted a year) now look who’s kicking.
The article mentions a “new look offense,” I think that’s a typo. It was a no look offense. Fun for everyone today 😄
IMO- Bear is now our 2nd most important player. That guy changes everything. Our DLine is night and day better than last year. Can you imagine if Tuli would have stayed?
Chris, I totally agree. I do not know if there is a term for players like him. Perhaps a “catalyst player.” A “catalyst player” is one that takes a team of extremely talented players and turns that unit into an elite unit. Without the Catalyst Player, the unit is good to very good; But, add that one players, the “chemistry” of that unit totally changes – it becomes almost a different unit and moves into the elite to legendary realm. It is rare to have one. SC has three Catalyst Players on this team: On O – Caleb On D… Read more »
Mel Tucker seems to be having some problems, perhaps MI St is looking for a way to get out of that obscene contract he has.
#MELTOO
It isn’t 2002 to 3, but i will take it!
By the way, every week it seems like our schedule looks tougher and tougher for this season. I think we just had our last gimme win.😐