Saturday NCAA Football
1 STAR SELECTION
USC -37 over Arizona
The top-ranked USC Trojans return home to take on the Arizona Wildcats in conference play on Saturday. The 2-time defending national champions have won 26 straight games overall, 22 straight at home, and 15 consecutive Pac-10 contests. Those streaks will not be in danger here. The Trojans did have a close call last week, but came from behind to dump the Sun Devils at Arizona State, 38-28. Meanwhile, the Mildcats were getting mauled, 28-0, at California.
Not much was working for Arizona’s offense last Saturday, as the ground game gained a pathetic 37 yards on 28 carries. Sophomore QB Richard Kovalcheck completed less than half of his passes, for a measly 169 yards with three interceptions. Arizona’s defense allowed the Bears to roll up nearly 200 yards rushing in the shutout.
USC put on their Superman capes at half-time to erase a double-digit deficit and keep their streaks and #1 ranking intact. It was the usual cast of Trojan super-heroes with FB LenDale White, TB Reggie Bush, QB Matt Leinart, and WR Dwayne Jarrett leading the way. Both RBs carried for 150+ yards in the win. The defense did bend a little, allowing 347 yards to Arizona State’s very talented QB Sam Keller. Still, this unit did record four interceptions, and made big plays when it counted the most.
The Trojans were tested on the road last week, and costly early mistakes and miscues put them in holes that they had to climb their way out of. Now they back enjoying the comforts of home and are looking to get their offensive engines running smoothly before next week’s big game at Notre Dame. In their only other home contest this season, USC took apart Arkansas like the Razorbacks were a high school JV squad, roasting the Hogs 70-17. Arizona is probably not as good as Arkansas, and now the ‘Cats will be served up as the sacrificial lamb for USC to work out their first-half hiccups. "We want to come out firing and get our momentum back," leading rusher Reggie Bush said. "It's a necessity for our offense, especially because of how slow we've been coming out the last two games." It shouldn’t be much a problem against an Arizona teams that has yet to beat a Division I-A team this season. Their only win was against Northern Arizona. USC has scored 94 points against Arizona in the past two seasons, and there doesn't seem to be any reason to suggest why the Trojans won't at least hit their 2005 average of 54 points per game.
There are plenty of numbers to suggest that USC will roll big-time here. ‘Zona has covered only once in 8 tries as a double-digit underdog and is an embarrassing 1-21 ATS when allowing more than 35 points. The Trojans should have that by half-time, and they are 27-1 ATS in conference home games when they score more than 35 points. We also note that USC is 16-0 SU & ATS during the regular season under Pete Carroll against teams off a SU loss, 12-0 ATS off a spread loss when not playing Cal, 8-0 ATS as a home favorite vs. opponents playing with revenge, and 8-0 ATS as a favorite of 24+ points. Look for the Trojans to flex their muscles here early and often as they devour Arizona.
PROJECTED FINAL SCORE: USC 56 ARIZONA 10