Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com
5 Things To Watch: USC
11/11/23 | Football, @GoDucksMoseley
The Ducks will host the Trojans in Autzen Stadium on Saturday (7:30 p.m., FOX).
EUGENE, Ore. — The No. 6 Oregon football team will host USC for the first time since 2015 when the Ducks welcome the Trojans to Autzen Stadium on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
The UO football team (8-1, 5-1 Pac-12) is looking to stay on track in its pursuit of a conference championship and a spot in the College Football Playoff. USC (7-3, 5-2) has lost three of its last four; the Ducks and Trojans each have wins over Stanford, Colorado and California, each has lost to Washington and Oregon beat Utah while USC lost to the Utes.
USC leads the all-time series with Oregon, 38-22-2, including 11-9-1 in Eugene. The Ducks have won four of the last five in the matchup, including three of the last four at Autzen Stadium.
Saturday's game will be televised by FOX, with Tim Brando on play by play, analysis from Spencer Tillman and sideline reporting by Josh Sims.
Some storylines to watch come kickoff Saturday evening …
1. From a head coach's perspective, last week's Oregon football game probably presented the two best possible outcomes — the Ducks won, and they also had a bunch of things to clean up moving forward.
Despite a slow start, early turnovers and too many turnovers, Oregon still beat California handily. So the Ducks stayed on track toward their big-picture goals, while also having motivation to keep pushing for improvement as they returned to practice this week.
"These guys come to work, man," UO coach Dan Lanning said. "They're wired the right way. It's always about hearing the message, not the tone. I thought our guys did a phenomenal job of identifying exactly what they want to do to get a little bit better. Right now, this part of the season, it's about finding something you need to get a little bit better at and growing that one percent."
2. For as much as penalties have been a concern for Oregon, they've been equally impactful on the Trojans.
Entering this week, USC has the most penalty yardage in the Pac-12 Conference, 715 (the Trojans have played one more game than everyone else, and their per-game average of 71.5 penalty yards in third in the league behind UW and Colorado). Oregon, meanwhile, has the fourth-most penalty yards per game in the Pac-12, 64.1.
Who can best avoid yellow flags come Saturday?
"It's the game within the game," Lanning said. "We got to be able to stay on schedule on offense, which means you can't get penalties. And obviously, defensively, you can't give them new opportunities. You can't give them new first downs. So that's definitely one of the keys to victory in this one."
3. It's a similar story for the Trojans defensively this season — USC has allowed the most total yardage in the Pac-12 this fall, 4,360, and the third-most yardage on a per-game basis, 436.0. As for scoring defense, USC ranks 11th in the Pac-12, giving up 34.5 points per game.
The Trojans looked to address those numbers this week by making a change at defensive coordinator. So there could be some unknowns for the Ducks come Saturday.
"I think there will be a lot of similarities to some of the stuff that they already do," Lanning said. "That group will probably have some new wrinkles that we potentially haven't seen. But it all comes back to what football is all about — tackling, blocking, breaking tackles, making catches. So all those things are going to hold true."
Even offensively, Lanning said, USC has a habit of introducing some new concepts week to week.
"They do what they do really well, but they're gonna bring new wrinkles into each game that you have to be prepared for," Lanning said. "They're one of the harder opponents to prepare for."
4. Generally speaking, a defense would like to take away an opposing team's strength, and make it rely on other elements of the offense to move the ball and create points.
With a program like USC, though, skill across the board could make that a challenge. Quarterback Caleb Williams is the returning Heisman Trophy winner, running back MarShawn Lloyd is second in the Pac-12 with 7.74 yards per carry, Tahj Washington averages 19.37 yards per reception and freshman Duce Robinson averages 25.44 yards per catch.
"You talk about trying to make a team play left-handed," Lanning said. "This is a hard team to make play left-handed because they do so many things really, really well.
5. The Ducks haven't played USC since 2020, but they know Williams well — be led Oklahoma to an Alamo Bowl win over Oregon in 2021 before transferring to USC.
Williams combines the pocket presence and elusiveness of Bo Nix with the downfield touch of Michael Penix. He's never out of a play, and therefore neither is the USC offense.
"Holding the ball for long periods of time and being able to keep his eyes downfield to create explosive plays, that's one of the things that probably makes him most unique," Lanning said. "Then the fact that you really can't outrun his arm — it doesn't matter how far the receivers are down the field, he's always got the ability to throw it and does a great job of that. So he's a tough one to prepare for."
The UO football team (8-1, 5-1 Pac-12) is looking to stay on track in its pursuit of a conference championship and a spot in the College Football Playoff. USC (7-3, 5-2) has lost three of its last four; the Ducks and Trojans each have wins over Stanford, Colorado and California, each has lost to Washington and Oregon beat Utah while USC lost to the Utes.
USC leads the all-time series with Oregon, 38-22-2, including 11-9-1 in Eugene. The Ducks have won four of the last five in the matchup, including three of the last four at Autzen Stadium.
Saturday's game will be televised by FOX, with Tim Brando on play by play, analysis from Spencer Tillman and sideline reporting by Josh Sims.
Some storylines to watch come kickoff Saturday evening …
1. From a head coach's perspective, last week's Oregon football game probably presented the two best possible outcomes — the Ducks won, and they also had a bunch of things to clean up moving forward.
Despite a slow start, early turnovers and too many turnovers, Oregon still beat California handily. So the Ducks stayed on track toward their big-picture goals, while also having motivation to keep pushing for improvement as they returned to practice this week.
"These guys come to work, man," UO coach Dan Lanning said. "They're wired the right way. It's always about hearing the message, not the tone. I thought our guys did a phenomenal job of identifying exactly what they want to do to get a little bit better. Right now, this part of the season, it's about finding something you need to get a little bit better at and growing that one percent."
2. For as much as penalties have been a concern for Oregon, they've been equally impactful on the Trojans.
Entering this week, USC has the most penalty yardage in the Pac-12 Conference, 715 (the Trojans have played one more game than everyone else, and their per-game average of 71.5 penalty yards in third in the league behind UW and Colorado). Oregon, meanwhile, has the fourth-most penalty yards per game in the Pac-12, 64.1.
Who can best avoid yellow flags come Saturday?
"It's the game within the game," Lanning said. "We got to be able to stay on schedule on offense, which means you can't get penalties. And obviously, defensively, you can't give them new opportunities. You can't give them new first downs. So that's definitely one of the keys to victory in this one."
3. It's a similar story for the Trojans defensively this season — USC has allowed the most total yardage in the Pac-12 this fall, 4,360, and the third-most yardage on a per-game basis, 436.0. As for scoring defense, USC ranks 11th in the Pac-12, giving up 34.5 points per game.
The Trojans looked to address those numbers this week by making a change at defensive coordinator. So there could be some unknowns for the Ducks come Saturday.
"I think there will be a lot of similarities to some of the stuff that they already do," Lanning said. "That group will probably have some new wrinkles that we potentially haven't seen. But it all comes back to what football is all about — tackling, blocking, breaking tackles, making catches. So all those things are going to hold true."
Even offensively, Lanning said, USC has a habit of introducing some new concepts week to week.
"They do what they do really well, but they're gonna bring new wrinkles into each game that you have to be prepared for," Lanning said. "They're one of the harder opponents to prepare for."
4. Generally speaking, a defense would like to take away an opposing team's strength, and make it rely on other elements of the offense to move the ball and create points.
With a program like USC, though, skill across the board could make that a challenge. Quarterback Caleb Williams is the returning Heisman Trophy winner, running back MarShawn Lloyd is second in the Pac-12 with 7.74 yards per carry, Tahj Washington averages 19.37 yards per reception and freshman Duce Robinson averages 25.44 yards per catch.
"You talk about trying to make a team play left-handed," Lanning said. "This is a hard team to make play left-handed because they do so many things really, really well.
5. The Ducks haven't played USC since 2020, but they know Williams well — be led Oklahoma to an Alamo Bowl win over Oregon in 2021 before transferring to USC.
Williams combines the pocket presence and elusiveness of Bo Nix with the downfield touch of Michael Penix. He's never out of a play, and therefore neither is the USC offense.
"Holding the ball for long periods of time and being able to keep his eyes downfield to create explosive plays, that's one of the things that probably makes him most unique," Lanning said. "Then the fact that you really can't outrun his arm — it doesn't matter how far the receivers are down the field, he's always got the ability to throw it and does a great job of that. So he's a tough one to prepare for."
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