Virginia Cavaliers at USC Trojans, Los Angeles Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA
Saturday, September 11, 2010, 10:30 pm, TV: Fox Sports Net
Opening Line: USC -17.5
Current Line: USC -19.5
Opening Total: 47
Current Total: 51
Money Line: USC -1100/ Virginia +750
Odds from above taken from Bookmaker Sportsbook
Coach Mike London leads his Virginia Cavaliers as they travel across the country to face the USC Trojans in L.A. Both teams won last week. Virginia won at home against Richmond 34-13 and USC went to Hawaii and came away with a 49-36 victory.
Virginia hosted in-state rival Richmond. The game was close at halftime as Virginia lead only 14-10. Richmond actually pulled within a point before the Cavs scored the last three touchdowns of the game to win 34-13. The Cavaliers had a pretty balanced attack. Quarterback Marc Verica threw for 283 yards, and a touchdown. The Cavaliers also rushed for 205 yards, led by Keith Payne with 114 yards and 4 touchdown runs. Kris Burd was Verica’s top target with 122 yards on 7 receptions with a touchdown pass. Virginia was decent on defense giving up 333 total yards, and forcing an interception and a sack.
Lane Kiffin was successful in his debut as Trojan’s coach but it wasn’t pretty. Hawaii actually out-gained USC 588-524 in the Trojan’s 49-36 victory. But the Warriors surprised everyone by installing elements of a new offense, the pistol. Warriors assistant coach, Mouse Davis, the creator of the run and shoot many years ago, put in the Pistol as a new wrinkle to fool the Trojans. Reportedly, the Trojans found out about it the night before when defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin was watching the local news in Honolulu and they showed the Warriors practicing. He realized that they were running the pistol. It was too late for the Trojans to adjust and Hawaii torched the Trojans for all those yards. On offense USC was unstoppable. The attack was pretty balanced. Matt Barkley threw for 257 yards and 5 touchdowns. On the ground, the Trojans rushed for 246 yards, led by Marc Taylor who had 17 carries for 154 yards and a touchdown. Receiver Ronald Johnson had 7 catches for 59 yards and three touchdowns. In the second half Hawaii never got within 11 points of the Trojans. However, the game could have been much different. Hawaii had 1st and goal late in the first half. They scored an apparent touchdown, but officials reviewed it and said he didn’t cross the plane. The Warriors had to settle for a field goal to make the score 27-16. The teams traded touchdowns in the second half. Had the Warriors scored a touchdown instead of the field goal they might have had a chance to pull off the upset.
Somewhat surprisingly, the Cavaliers will play their first ever game in the state of California, despite playing football for over 100 years. If they hope to upset the Trojans their best chance might be to rely on the running game to keep the Trojans high powered offense off the field. The Trojans defense was thrashed last week but that might be an aberration due to an offense that they didn’t plan for. Depth might prove to be an issue for the Trojans this season due to NCAA sanctions. A lot of players left the program leaving USC thin at some positions. It should be interesting to see if the USC defense will be exposed again.
Maddux Sports has crushed the bookmakers, after another win on Houston -19.5 on Friday we are now on a 90% football pick run, dont miss any of the Saturday college football picks.
