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SALT LAKE CITY — It's week two of the college football season, and now the real games begin. The Utah Utes will be welcomed into the Pac-12 with a monster road test in the L.A. Coliseum on Saturday against the USC Trojans. Both the Utes and the Trojans looked rusty in their season openers, but which team will bounce back to win Saturday?
With last weekend in mind for both teams, we look forward with five questions about what we can expect Saturday night in Los Angeles.
What did we learn from Utah’s game against Montana State?
- Jordan Wynn is either scared to get hit or still injured.
- John White is the starting tailback and could be one of the best runners Utah has had in a while.
- Norm Chow was holding some things back for USC.
- The defense is as solid as ever.
- Coleman Peterson is the starting place kicker, and a pretty good one at that.
What lingering questions do we have about the Utes?
- Is Wynn still injured?
- Will the offense be one-dimensional or will Norm Chow air it out more against USC?
- Can the young secondary cover top-tier Division 1 wide receivers — like the ones who play at USC?
- Will the Utes redshirt local freshman Harvey Langi?
- Does Utah have a standout wide out?
What can Utah expect from USC?
- The Trojans will throw the ball a lot. Lane Kiffin likes to throw the ball, as evidenced by Matt Barkley’s 46 pass attempts against Minnesota last week.
- The USC defensive line will put pressure on Wynn. The running backs will have to do better pass blocking for Wynn if he is going to get the offense going in L.A.
- USC will let their athletic receivers make plays for them. USC’s passing game is an extension of their running game. Kiffin likes short, safe passes to their fast and athletic receivers. The Utah secondary will have to tackle if they want to hold USC’s offense down.
What can be expected from Utah vs. USC?
- Wynn will air it out a little more than he did against Montana State. Chow definitely held back just for this game, so expect some more downfield passing when the Utes do throw the ball.
- John White will be the focus of the offense. The Utes will need to establish the running game to keep the powerful USC defensive line from pinning their ears back and coming after Wynn.
- The Utah defense will focus on not letting Robert Woods beat them. The USC star wide out caught all three touchdown passes on Saturday against Minnesota.
Miscellaneous:
- The last time these two teams played was in the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl. Utah held the Norm Chow-coordinated, Carson Palmer-led offense to six points in their 10-6 victory.
- USC running back Marc Tyler has been reinstated for the Utah game after being suspended for making comments to TMZ about USC allegedly paying their athletes.
- The Utes are 3-7 all-time against the Trojans in a series that dates back to 1915.
- Norm Chow was the offensive coordinator at USC from 2001-2004 while current USC head coach Kiffin was the wide receivers coach and the passing game coordinator.
- In 2005, Kiffin replaced Chow as the USC offensive coordinator.
- USC dropped from the AP Top 25 this week after narrowly beating Minnesota 19-17 on Saturday.
- The Utes have 32 Californians on the roster, including John White, Jordan Wynn, Keith McGill, Ryan Lacy, Reggie Dunn, John Cullen and Brian Blechen.
Conclusion
The Utes will have their hands full with USC this weekend. USC has more talent and depth, but only 22 players can play at a time, and Utah’s are just as good as anyone else in the Pac-12 South. If the offensive line can protect Jordan Wynn and if Norm Chow can release whatever secrets he was withholding last week, the Utes will be able to put up points on the USC defense. The matchup to watch will be Matt Barkley and the USC receivers against the Ute secondary. If Utah’s defense can tackle on Saturday, they will keep the Utes in the game and give the offense a chance to win.
Trevor Amicone is the sports director at 88.1 Weber FM "Ogden's Radio Station" and host of the sports talk radio show, "Fully Loaded Sports with Trevor Amicone". To check out more blogs, go to trevorstoptens.com.
