After back-to-back games at Folsom Field, Colorado will hit the road for a Friday night contest against one of its highest-profile opponents of the season – USC.
The No. 9 Trojans underwent a wholesale transformation in the offseason after surprisingly hiring coach Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma, restocking what had been a depleted roster with high-end transfers. Those moves have paid off in a big way, as USC has gone from a 4-8 misery last season to one of the sport’s most exciting teams.
Before things kick off Friday, let’s take a deeper look at the Trojans.
Game details
Who | Colorado (1-8, 1-5 Pac-12) vs. USC (8-1, 6-1)
Where | Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
When | 7:30 p.m. MT Friday
TV | FS1
USC Trojans (8-1)
Location: Los Angeles
Conference: Pac-12
Coach: Lincoln Riley (1st season at USC, 63-11 career record)
2021 record: 4-8
Scoring offense rank (of 131 Football Bowl Subdivision teams): 7th (41 PPG)
Scoring defense rank: 60th (25.2 PPG)
Total offense rank: 9th (495.9 YPG)
Total defense rank: 95th (409.2 YPG)
Five players to know
1. QB Caleb Williams (No. 13): For the second-consecutive week, Colorado will be tasked with trying to neutralize one of the country’s best quarterbacks and a leading contender for the Heisman Trophy. The Oklahoma transfer has lived up to and perhaps even exceeded lofty expectations in his first season with the Trojans, with 28 touchdowns to just one interception in his first nine games. His touchdown total puts him in a tie for third place among all Football Bowl Subdivision players. He also has 287 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns this season. Riley’s offense requires a dynamic quarterback and this season, it certainly has that.
2. DL Tuli Tuipulotu (No. 49): The 6-foot-4, 290-pound Tuipulotu has been a menace to opposing quarterbacks this season. The junior defensive lineman has nine sacks this season, ranking him first among all FBS players. His 16 tackles for loss are the fourth-most in college football. Last season, he was a first-team all-Pac-12 honoree. Colorado’s offensive line has been perhaps the team’s biggest strength this season. It will need to summon everything it has to contain Tuipulotu.
3. RB Travis Dye (No. 26): A familiar face in Pac-12 circles, Dye has complemented Williams beautifully in his first season with the program after transferring over from Oregon. His 858 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns rank him among the top 30 players nationally in both categories and he’s been efficient with his touches, as well, averaging 6.3 yards per carry.
4. DB Mekhi Blackmon (No. 6): Another week, another former Buff who’s excelling elsewhere in the Pac-12. Blackmon spent his first four college seasons in Boulder before becoming one of a slew of Colorado players to enter the transfer portal. He’s been a valuable addition for the Trojans. In his first season with the program, he has a team-high nine pass breakups and two interceptions, the former of which isn’t far off from his career total at Colorado (13).
5. WR Mario Williams (No. 4): This inclusion comes with a bit of a caveat as an injury has sidelined Williams for USC’s past two games, so we may not even end up seeing him against the Buffs. A return Friday seems more likely for him than fellow star wideout Jordan Addison, so we’ll spotlight Williams here. The Oklahoma transfer, who played for one season in Norman with Caleb Williams, has used that chemistry with his quarterback to great effect this season, with 493 receiving yards, four touchdowns and 19 yards per catch.
What USC does well
This might come as a shock given Riley’s reputation and pedigree, but USC has a dangerous and dynamic passing attack. Williams, a former five-star recruit, is a top-tier talent who spreads the ball effectively – five different USC players have at least 20 catches this season – and makes hardly any mistakes.
The Trojans are 12th among FBS teams in passing yards per game, with 313.7, while averaging 8.7 yards per attempt. In its past three games, USC has racked up 1,152 yards through the air, an average of 384 per contest. Given Colorado’s porous secondary, those numbers could get even more cartoonish after Friday night.
Where USC is vulnerable
A team that can pass the ball so well isn’t nearly as good at defending it.
The Trojans are 109th in passing yards allowed per game, with 267. Part of that has to do with the frequency at which opponents throw the ball, but a closer look reveals some disheartening numbers for a team that’s still in the hunt for the College Football Playoff. Over its past three games, USC has allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete 66.9% of their passes for 1,201 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions while averaging 8.8 yards per attempt. In a narrow win last week against Cal, the Trojans allowed Golden Bears quarterback Jack Plummer to throw for 406 yards and 8.3 yards per attempt, nearly 150 and 1.5, respectively, more than his season average.
Key stat
Colorado is 0-15 all-time against USC, including a 0-10 mark since the Buffs joined the Pac-12. The games haven’t necessarily been blowouts, as five of Colorado’s past six losses to the Trojans have come by 14 points or fewer. That’s not an indication of how Friday’s festivities are likely to go, though, as USC won last season’s matchup, 37-14. Considering that the Trojans are significantly better than they were then while the Buffs are measurably worse, there’s not a lot of reason for optimism.
Key matchup
J.T. Shrout against the USC secondary. We’ve established that the Trojans are vulnerable against the pass and while Colorado hasn’t carved anyone up through the air this season, it has gotten marginally better over the past couple of weeks. Shrout has thrown for 469 yards in his past two starts after compiling just 281 yards in his first three starts. Of course, he’ll be without star freshman wideout Jordyn Tyson from here on out, but USC has made similarly pedestrian (or worse) quarterbacks look competent this season. There’s no feasible scenario in which Colorado slows down the USC offense – which has scored at least 40 points in seven of its nine games this season – so the Buffs’ best hope, slim as it might be, is to slice through the Trojans. And the best hope of doing that is through the air.
